Bargaining Bulletin #3
Administration tables proposal to remove collegial decision-making model
Last week your CFA bargaining committee met the employer’s committee to exchange proposals to renew our Collective Agreement. You can see both sets of proposals here:
We are surprised and disappointed that the employer has tabled specific proposals to delete—not just modify, but delete—the collegial decision-making model that has for decades been the core of our agreement. You and the other members of your department make decisions about your workload and schedule, and about course/program content, posting of new positions, who coordinates the department’s work, and much more.
For many of us, this autonomy is what makes working at Cap so great. The employer wants to replace this with an authoritarian model where deans and other administrators make all those decisions.
Your bargaining committee sees this as a concerted attack on our collegial decision-making and an attempt to convert CapU to top-down management of all faculty work. The collegial model that we enjoy is unique in the system. Other faculty associations envy it. We need to protect it.
The CFA bargaining committee was hopeful that this round of bargaining would build on the positive round of bargaining in 2020. This change to a foundational piece of our Collective Agreement was unexpected.
We have tabled proposals intended to help our salary match inflation and to restore benefit levels. (Our benefits are now worth 56% of their 1995 value.)
We want to reduce inequities for non-regulars to support recruitment and retention; support equity, diversity, and Indigenous faculty; and otherwise improve faculty working conditions without changing the way the university operates. Our goal remains to improve the University by supporting job and income security for faculty, and improving the collegial model.
We hoped the employer would come to the table in the same spirit. We are still hopeful their proposals are based on a misunderstanding of the collegial model, and that the administration will shift direction and work with us.
Our next negotiations meeting with the employer is on 23 February.
Note: please do not discuss the content of the proposals with University administrators. We must restrict actual negotiation to the bargaining table.
Notes on the proposals
We encourage you to read the employer’s and CFA’s proposals. Below are some key points.
There are significant items in the employer’s proposals that:
1) Reduce or eliminate your personal control over your working conditions and leadership as follows:
Eliminate departmental decision-making entirely (delete most of article 2.5, all of 2.8, and all references to 2.8) (pages 10-14)
Deans evaluate coordinators and can fire them from coordinator role (p 25)
More frequent evaluation of faculty: every 3 years instead of every 5
More administrator control of faculty hiring, including absolute control of creation and hiring of Regular Limited Term faculty (p 9)
2) Reduce your ability to communicate, discuss and take collective action:
Delete the CFA Tuesday meeting block (p 14)
Delete 2.7, which says the union has an interest in the professional lives of its members (p 13)
3) More easily garnishee your salary.
Enable employer to claw back claimed overpayments of income without consent (p 21, re “arrears schedule”)
Some highlights of the CFA proposals:
7% wage increase per year, or cost of living allowance, whichever is higher (proposal “C1”)
Continued “cost of living allowance” indexing of all dollar amounts to inflation (C2)
Restore lost value of benefits due to inflation (e.g., raising $750 limit for paramedical, first set in 1995, to $1,400) (B1) - the employer tabled nothing on benefits
Paid research and scholarship (PDR1) - the employer tabled no proposals for research, except limitations on paid educational leave
Placement of new faculty on scale at time of hiring (C3)
Academic freedom (AFC1)
Support for Indigenous faculty (IHR1-3)
Support diversity and human rights (IHR 6-8)
Affirming right of faculty to union stewarding support (UR1-2)
We encourage you to attend the February 21, 2023 General Meeting.
If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to email a member of your Faculty Association bargaining committee.
In Solidarity, Michael Begg (Chief Bargainer), Douglas Alards-Tomalin, Tim Acton, Monica Staff (FPSE staff representative), Eduardo Azmitia: CFA President (ex officio)