Greetings!
We hope that your term is progressing well. We
wish to take this opportunity to provide you with some reminders and an update
of union activities, issues and announcements. We would like to begin by
announcing we are developing a new website.
If you have any suggestions for additions or links for our new website,
please contact Bryan Wiebe.
Reminders:
· Our
Collective Agreement ends on June 30th of this year. We have already received some suggestions for
changes or additions to our Collective Agreement, and any additional
suggestions are always welcome and appreciated
· According
to the MOA, Sessionals having seniority should have received a letter from the
Dean stating their areas of teaching qualification by Dec. 1, 2008. If you
disagreed with that letter you should have notified the Dean within two months
of receiving that letter.
· Sessionals
interested in applying for seniority should note the following:
Sessional Lecturers shall be responsible for
arranging student evaluations for each of the courses they teach while in the
probationary period. Failure on the part of the Sessional Lecturer to arrange
for adequate student evaluations shall be grounds to withhold seniority. (from
Article 5.1.10.8.2.3)
· Sessional
Positions for next year will be advertised in June. In some departments, there may be significant
changes in the number of courses available for sessional faculty due to new
hirings and changes in the number of course offerings.
· We
want to emphasize that all members of the Union have the right to consult with
the Union about any matter concerning your employment with the college. Please
feel free to contact a member of the Executive with any concerns you might
have. The Union respects the
confidentiality of our members.
· Since
our last newsletter, we have been busy working behind the scenes on behalf of
individual members regarding matters which must remain private. Some of these matters, with much effort and
time on the part of members of the Executive, have been resolved
satisfactorily; other matters have not yet been resolved. At times, the Executive has been meeting
weekly (and sometimes many times per week) to deal with such matters. It is our hope that members feel that they
are not alone in dealing with problems that may arise at the College.
Issues:
·
The USFA has signed a Memorandum of Agreement
with the U. of S. extending their Collective Agreement for one year. Clearly,
this is an option we should consider for our own Agreement. Jim Cheeseman has described the provisions of
their MoA as follows:
The terms of the Agreement remain unchanged, except
for the following:
- all members of the bargaining unit will receive a 5.25% scale increase to
their salaries
- floors, ceilings, and CDIs will increase by 5.25% for all ranks
- the Accountable Professional Expense Allowance will be increased to $2050 per
annum
- the size of the merit pool at the College level will be increased by 40 CDIs.
http://www.usaskfaculty.ca/news/read.php/298
They have also agreed to enter into talks on a number of
issues including: “alternative faculty appointments” and “retirement”. The
actual MoA is available at the following link:
(http://www.usask.ca/hrd/memos/docs/usfa_moa_ca_extension_feb_13_09.pdf ) If you have any
comments or concerns about this kind of option for us, please feel free to
contact a member of our Executive.
·
The negotiations regarding the future of the CSF
are continuing. The Administration is
determined to implement its plan to “reduce” the number of CSF positions to
zero and increase tenured faculty to 40, and the Administration has reaffirmed
its determination to implement this plan even in light of potential problems
that may occur in the economy. It has
become clear to us that the CSF are becoming more upset and discouraged as time
moves forward without any resolution of the uncertainty attached to their employment
futures. One strong sentiment that has been expressed to us is the feeling of
betrayal. Most of the CSF have voluntarily contributed to the College in many
ways above and beyond the
strict fulfillment of their duties, only
to discover now that their commitment and dedication to the College seems to
count for nothing but empty platitudes.
This
commitment has not been reciprocated.
We
think it is fair to say that for many CSF, the lack of recognition and respect
for this commitment to the College over many years is the main source of
bitterness.
The Union Executive hopes
that ongoing negotiations will result not only in a just settlement,
but also in some acknowledgment on the part
of Administration of the many years of dedication and some acknowledgement of
the significant contributions which the CSF have made to the College and its
students.
·
In the January 12th report to the Board, the
President of our College states regarding upcoming negotiations:
New Board members should be aware
that we have been through a difficult period of labour
relations in the last two years, which included a trip to the Labour
Relations Board over an Unfair Labour
Practice committed by our Union. The Labour
Relations Board found strongly in favour of
management and censored the Union. This did not improve relations. Our recent
decision to eliminate 15 Continuing Sessional Faculty is also a source of great
consternation from many within the Union. We will soon begin negotiations for a
new Collective Agreement; the current Agreement concludes on June 30, 2009.
Challenges will abound.
Although it is clear that the elimination of 15 Continuing
Sessional Faculty is much more than a source of "consternation" for
us, we must also take issue with the comments regarding the Labour Relations
Board's decision. We want to remind our
members that the issue in the Labour Relations Board hearing was whether there
was undue influence in a ratification vote held by the Union. We believed that the ratification vote was
valid and that our members were not unduly influenced
in their decision.
It is true that the Labour Relations Board sided with management though
hardly "strongly" and without "censor" or censure (the
ruling is available in its entirety at
http://www.stmfu.ca/archives).
The Board found that a second ratification
vote should be held.
The fact that the
second ratification vote had the same result as the first (and thus, brought us
both back to exactly the same point where we were before the Labour Relations
Board hearing) is hardly a victory for anyone besides the lawyers on both sides
who, at least, received remuneration for their efforts.
Although we acknowledge that improved
relations were not a result of the Labour Relations Board hearing and decision,
we also believe that improved relations are best achieved through direct
discussion aimed at mutual understanding.
Announcements:
We want to
congratulate Chris Foley who has been elected to a three-year term on the
Executive of the Union. He was elected
by acclamation, and his statement has been circulated. We also want to thank the members of the
STMFU Elections Committee (David Peacock and Darrell McLaughlin) for conducting
this election.
Quotable Quotes
on Unions and Workers:
From Laborem Exercens, John Paul II, 1981:
"Catholic
social teaching does not hold that unions are no more than a reflection of the
"class" structure of society and that they are a mouthpiece for a
class struggle which inevitably governs social life. They are indeed a mouthpiece for the
struggle for social justice, for the just rights of working people in
accordance with their individual professions." (See Part III, section 20 "Importance of
Unions").
"But here it must be emphasized, in general terms, that the person
who works desires not only due remuneration for his work; he also
wishes that, within the production process, provision be made for him to be
able to know that in his work, even on something that is owned in
common, he is working "for himself". This awareness is extinguished within him in
a system of excessive bureaucratic centralization, which makes the worker feel
that he is just a cog in a huge machine moved from above, that he is for more
reasons than one a mere production instrument rather than a true subject of
work with an initiative of his own. The
Church's teaching has always expressed the strong and deep conviction that
man's work concerns not only the economy but also, and especially, personal
values." (see Part III, section 15
"The Personalist Argument")
"It is always to be hoped that, thanks to the work of their unions,
workers will not only have more, but above all be more; in other words, that they will realize their
humanity more fully in every respect."
(See Part III, section 20 "Importance of Unions").
