Bargaining Bulletin #19

We have a deal!

Dear colleagues:

Your bargaining committee is happy to report that we have reached a tentative

agreement with the employer. The agreement provides improvements to our rights

that are worth well over $600,000/year, including a breakthrough in the scale-

placement rules for non-regular faculty.

We think it is a good deal. It is a leap beyond what seemed likely last spring, when

the employer’s proposals were mainly to delete our collegial model. And it is far

better than our position at the start of the fall, when the employer finally responded

to our monetary proposals with a proposal for nothing but a “wellness” account

worth $200,000. Thankfully, we got past that moment of near-impasse and

eventually agreed on changes that improve the working conditions, benefits, and

income for all our members.

These changes include significant increases in our salaries, and retroactive payment

of those increases for the period from April 2022 through December 2023. See the

attached “2022-25 Pay grid.”

The deal also includes breakthrough changes in the way non-regular faculty are placed on scale,

and the way private music instructors are paid. Those are both issues on which the CFA and

the employer had long been in stalemate, in round after round of bargaining.

We have increased funding for benefits: both for those of you who are on the benefits

plan, and–for the first time–those who are not yet eligible for the CapU plan. For

those on benefits, the improvements include the employer adding $250 each year to

the Health Care Spending Account (HCSA). For those not yet on benefits, the

employer will provide the CFA with a fund we can use to reimburse you for eligible

health-care expenses.

Last—but not least—the employer has finally agreed to provide some level of

financial compensation for research and scholarship activities from a fund that can

be used to offset teaching sections We will put an equitable application process in

place.

The attached summary lists all of the changes in point form. We encourage you to read it.

The bargaining committee is working on the final paperwork for signature, which we will

post on our website with a new bulletin, so you can read the full text if

you want more detail.

We plan to ask you to ratify the agreement early next week, via the secure method SimplyVoting.

The employer will be seeking ratification from its board of governors

and the B.C. government’s Post-Secondary Employers Association. The sooner we

have ratification, the sooner we will receive our changes in pay and benefits. Apart

from the general wage increase, the employer has committed to providing the retro.

pay within two months of ratification, potentially as soon as February.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement through this long process.

Thank you to the area stewards who provided input along the way.

And a particular thanks to the non-regular committee, Susan Summers, Karen Nakajima,

and Lesley Schimanski, who were invaluable in helping us navigate the complex final

negotiations about scale placement.

In solidarity,

Bargaining Committee members Tim Acton, Doug Alards-Tomalin, Eduardo Azmitia, Michael Begg, and FPSE representative Monica Staff