Bargaining Bulletin #7
CFA bargaining updates: MoveUP strike vote | Contact information from members |Wage increase update | Proposal notes
Dear members: As we prepare for the next negotiations meeting on 27 March, your bargaining committee wants to advise you about several items:
MoveUP negotiations and strike vote
Non-Cap U contact information for faculty
B.C. government wage increase update
Update on CFA proposals
Note on threat to collegial model
1. MoveUP negotiations and strike vote
Our MoveUP colleagues held a strike vote on Tuesday, 21 March. The result was 87% in support of a strike mandate (see their bulletins). This is strong support for their bargaining team and its efforts to reach a fair agreement. The vote means the MoveUP union can take strike action if the employer is unwilling to return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith.
The CFA stands with MoveUP and its members, and we encourage all faculty to show their support for our MoveUP colleagues. These are the people who enable our departments and the University to run smoothly: the DSs and DDAs we work with daily, the IT experts who maintain our systems, the staff who schedule classes and ensure we are paid, the professionals who make the campus safe and beautiful, and all the other support staff who keep the University running.
A strike mandate doesn’t mean there will be a walkout or picket lines. Those are just the strongest actions a union can take. MoveUP’s goal in getting a strong strike mandate is to bring the employer back to the table. We are talking with MoveUP regularly and will update you about any job action steps they take as soon as we learn about them. We will also let you know how you can support their specific actions should you wish to express your solidarity.
2. Non-CapU contact information for faculty
As you know, the employer led off this round of bargaining by taking a dramatically stark position at our table against the collegial model, against the workplace democracy provisions of 2.8 and against your rights to union support. So far they have not modified that position. They have also engaged in conduct that mirrors their tactics in negotiations with MoveUP. We therefore want to be ready in the event that the CFA needs to initiate one or more job actions.
We want to be able to stay in touch with our members even in the event that your CapU e-mail addresses become unavailable. We are therefore requesting that you share a non-Cap U e-mail address with us directly. You can do this in one of two ways:
Send Reini Klein your personal contact information on cfareini@gmail.com, or
Share the information with your area steward. We are asking stewards to collect information so we can be in touch via an e-mail tree.
3. B.C. government wage increase update
Yesterday, 23 March, the B.C. government confirmed the exact percentage wage increase for year 2 of our collective agreement (i.e., the year starting in April 2023). The provincial government had already told all post-secondary employers and unions that the government is providing a maximum 6.75% increase in year 2, depending on inflation. The BC inflation rate for this year turned out to be 7.1%.
This means the government will give us a 6.75% increase in all salary steps during year 2. This is on top of an increase of 3.24% in year 1. The government is giving an increase in year 3 of between 2 and 3%, depending on inflation.
We want to underscore two points. First, this is an offer from the government, made to all employees (faculty and staff) in our sector. It is not an offer of any kind from the CapU administration, but rather an obligation reframed as a “favour” they are giving us. Second, this offer falls short of inflation, so the actual value of our incomes in year 2 will decline by 0.35%.
4. Update on CFA proposals
As we hope you have seen, the CFA has tabled a wide range of proposals that we believe will benefit the whole University. These include funded research work, restoring lost value of wages and benefits, fair pay for non-regular faculty, and improvements in regularization. We encourage members to read these (attached again below).
We haven’t been able to provide updates on many of these proposals, because the employer has not yet provided the basic financial information we need to assess their cost. The employer’s committee has confirmed that it cannot discuss these proposals until they give the CFA the information. Your CFA bargaining committee requested the information on 8 February, at the start of bargaining. Today, 24 March, we finally received a limited amount of information in response to a few of our requests. We are still waiting for most of what we need to discuss our major proposals at the table.
One non-cost proposal we have begun to discuss is regularization of the person (vs. creating a new position) after 3 years of work (proposal “JS2”). We expect a response from the employer to this proposal on 27 March. We also plan to discuss research work at that meeting. However, the scope of discussion is still hamstrung by the lack of information from the administration.
List of CFA proposals [PDF]
Full text of CFA proposals [PDF]
5. Notes on collegial decision-making model
As you know, the employer has proposed dismantling the role departments have in decision-making by removing the most important parts of article 2.5 of the Collective Agreement, and by deleting all but a few words of article 2.8. We have shared with you their written proposal, and we have briefly described this proposal in previous bulletins and in the February and March general meetings. The employer has taken to claiming, “We aren’t trying to delete the collegial decision-making model.” We do not see how they can suggest this.
To illustrate the employer’s proposal more clearly, we have attached a properly marked up version [PDF] of what the employer wants to do to these articles.
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)