Striking Up Conversations With Other Unions

By Mark Golden, UWFA External Relations Officer

UWFA has formal links with other unions through its membership in the Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, Winnipeg Labour Council and the Manitoba Federation of Labour. These links find their most practical expression during strikes or lockouts. Though UWFA members have regularly voted to give the executive the option of taking job action during negotiations, we have never struck (or been locked out). Other unions have been less fortunate or more determined. UWFA often offers support to those who find themselves on the picket line. Though faculty unions which strike or are locked out receive financial support through the CAUT Defence Fund — to which UWFA makes annual payments — UWFA often makes a small additional contribution, and sometimes sends a delegation to bolster picket lines.

Click to read more ...

CAUT Begins Censure Process

Reprinted from CAUT’s website (www.caut.ca).

(Ottawa – April 27, 2010) Delegates to the national Council of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) meeting in Ottawa have voted unanimously to begin the process of censuring the University of Manitoba and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA).

The vote came after delegates discussed the findings of an ad-hoc committee of inquiry into the case of Dr. Larry Reynolds, which concluded that the University of Manitoba and the WRHA terminated his position without just cause or due process.

Click to read more ...

The Crowe Case: A Student's Perspective

By: Joe Martin, Class of 1959

It is difficult to write about this episode even after half a century. It was a brutal, angry affair that changed my life from academia to business. NOTHING in subsequent years in business, in politics or in sport touched the intensity of the Crowe Case.

In the 1950s Harry Crowe was not only a lecturer of History at United College, he was also one of the most popular, as good a teacher of undergrads as any in Canada. He was part of a small, but distinguished History department, which also included Stewart Reid, Ken McNaught and G. K. Brown, and which had close relationships with the History department at Fort Garry headed by W. L. Morton.

As we returned to campus after the 1958 summer break, rumours were swirling that Harry had done something awful. As events unfolded we learned that what he had done was write a letter to a colleague, which somehow never reached the colleague but was received by the administration. On the basis of that intercepted letter, Harry was fired.

Click to read more ...

UWFA Bargaining Updates

By Lisa McGifford, UWFA Staff Officer

Bargaining has begun for each of the three UWFA bargaining units (Main Unit, Collegiate and Contract Faculty). For more information, click the link below. If you have any questions, please contact the UWFA Office.

UWFA has buttons for each of our bargaining units. They are available from any Executive Member or at the UWFA office.

Click to read more ...

Control Matters: Intellectual Property and Electronic Files

Submitted by Alexander Freund, UWFA Grievance Officer 

From 11 to 13 December 2009, some fifty grievance officers and others involved in grievance processes at universities across Canada met in Ottawa to learn about the protection of intellectual property. The three-day CAUT workshop, Care, Custody and Control: Protecting Members’ Correspondence, Documents and Intellectual Property, introduced participants to a broad range of issues that have been disputed between universities and faculty associations and have even been taken to arbitration and the judicial process. Lisa McGifford and Alexander Freund represented UWFA, which was one of forty faculty associations present at the workshop.

Intellectual and legal ownership of documents and ideas has, over the last decade, moved to the centre of disputes between university administrations and faculty associations. At issue is the fundamental question of who owns the emails, syllabi, administrative files, research results, inventions, and other intellectual property created by faculty. This is especially important now as data networks (such as email systems and servers) are making it easier for employers to have access to this information. Do universities own the documents created by faculty members simply because, as university administrations have claimed, faculty are employees of the university?

Click to read more ...

Closing the Gap: In Search of Librarian/Faculty Parity

From 23 to 25 October 2009, Michael Hohner attended a CAUT conference entitled Negotiating for Parity: Closing the Librarian/Faculty Gap on behalf of the UWFA Executive. The conference  was about how academic freedom allows librarians to vigorously oppose efforts to censor, filter or divert information. It also allows librarians to critique workplace mechanisms and structures that interfere with the exercise of their duties.  It is therefore essential that parity in regard to academic freedom exist between academic librarians and faculty in collective agreement language.  It is equally important that librarians elevate the exercise of academic freedom to a central place in the culture of their workplaces, as faculty have done.

Michael Hohner is the Systems & Media Services Coordinator for the University Library (on leave for 2009-2010). His full conference report can be found here.

CAUT Librarians' Conference Report

Faculty News

Are you a Canadian academic with MS?

A research study is currently underway investigating how Canadian academics with multiple sclerosis (MS) negotiate the workplace.  A goal of the study is to increase understanding of workers’ experiences and employment-related decisions.  Interviews are being conducted with three groups of academics who have MS: (1) those who hold full-time academic positions; (2) those who hold part-time and contractually-limited academic positions; and (3) retired faculty members.  Interested in participating in a phone interview?  Want more information about the study?  Contact Valorie Crooks (778) 782-350, crooks@sfu.ca or Michelle Owen (204) 786-9973, m.owen@uwinnipeg.ca.

Michelle Owen Appointed to CAUT Committee

Michelle Owen, Sociology, has been appointed to the CAUT Women’s Committee for a three year term (with a possibility of one renewal).  The committee comprises at least eight members who have demonstrated a commitment to the advancement of the status of women.  Michelle’s first meeting takes place this summer in Ottawa.