MoveUp “After Strike” Updates, August 3, 2023

Congratulations to our colleagues at MoveUp on the membership ratification of their long and hard fought for agreement! This is a victory for both of our unions and a reminder of the importance of our common history of standing side-by-side and solidarity around both contracts and bargaining and workplace rights and organizing. On August 1, 2023, 97% of Moveup members voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying the proposed terms of settlement. This includes language on remote work and terms for return to work. A copy of the new MoveUp collective agreement and a new memorandum of agreement can both be found on the MoveUp website after both parties have signed them.

Tyee article

As faculty we are now in the “after strike” period of MoveUp’s job action in which MoveUp and faculty members have returned to work. While out on the picket line faculty and staff were interviewed by a correspondent from The Tyee. On July 25th, following the end of the walkout, The Tyee published an article on the walkout entitled  “The Capilano U Strike Might Be Over, But Bitterness Lingers.” The article is one sign that the longest strike in post-secondary education history in BC is making waves not just on the North Shore but on a Provincial level. Please take a minute to follow the link and read the article. The article reminds us of the personal impacts and costs for some of us that walked the line. It also is an occasion to reflect on how unnecessary the intransigence of the employer was over what was really a single-issue dispute.

CFA-MoveUp joint meet-up with Premiere David Eby

Your CFA faculty association has also been working to shift conversations about our workplace rights onto a provincial level. On July 20th, 2023, Move UP and CFA executive members attended an event at VCC at which David Eby spoke. Members of MoveUP and the CFA spoke to Premiere Eby about our shared job action. Photos of this event were taken by our job action photo documentarian Carrie Jung and can be seen here. Special thanks to Carrie Jung for her work on this! A series of follow-up communications between CFA and the Premiere’s office have put Cap. U. as a workplace on his radar, as we are keeping our eye on the return to our contract bargaining come the Fall. 

Respecting MoveUP work

Even as MoveUp slowly comes back to work, we have continued to receive some reports of faculty being directed or encouraged to do MoveUP work. If true, this would be a serious violation of both of our collective agreements. Just as staff are not contractually able to complete faculty work, we must respect the same boundaries for MoveUp work. Even as the contract has been ratified, please take care not to do any work that is ordinarily done by MoveUP staff. 

We have been reaching out to HR, when requested by faculty, to investigate instances of this kind of alleged direction. We are advising HR that, while there are significant differences from area to area, in general, communications with students of a “first contact” nature around admissions, registration, and program application have regularly been MoveUp/staff work. We are encouraging areas that are exceptions to this rule, such as Fine and Applied Arts and Music, where faculty have historically been involved in the program portfolio review/interview/audition process to meet as an area to clarify lines between faculty and staff work.

Summer I Employees 

We would like to reiterate that if you taught summer term 1 courses, you should not be doing any further work on those courses after 30 June unless the employer is paying you to do this. That advice applies to non-regular faculty and regular faculty alike. The employer cannot expect us to do work in July or August that we would have done in June, unless it pays us to do this work. 

Again, for regular faculty: We have seen HR and some deans suggest that you can do summer term 1 course work during your vacation, and "reschedule" the lost vacation for some time before the end of the 2023 calendar year. We continue to advise against doing this. Faculty that do this will be forfeiting their pay. Although HR has declared that they will not be paying faculty for back work done for Summer I courses, we intend to pursue a grievance or other actions to insure that faculty are properly paid for work done after June 30th to complete grading or instruction in Summer I courses.

On the other hand, HR has informed us that Summer I faculty should expect to be paid for the extended four days of work at the end of June (June 27 - 30). This should appear in your July paycheck.

Pay questions

Pay continues to generate many questions for our membership, particularly as July payroll was issued. As promised in a previous bulletin we have now set up a dedicated email address for pay questions and concerns that have arisen as a result of either the job action or the delayed and deferred pay from June 2023 payroll. Our newly formed CFA Pay Advisory Team (PAT) is composed of volunteer economics faculty and others with payroll experience. They will respond to inquiries about pay leading up to, during, and after the strike at cfapayteam@gmail.com. Inquiries can be anonymous or “named.” The email account is monitored by the CFA executive for confidentiality and security. Please reach out directly to the Pay Advisory Team at that email address or contact cfa@capilanou.ca if you have any concerns or questions about the process before you reach out.

CFA on Social media

We are seeking interested persons to join and contribute to our social media team. The CFA has an active presence on social media platforms such as Linktree, Instagram, Twitter, and Threads. This is, from our point of view, an effective way to communicate and solicit engagement from the membership. It also can be a way for us to generate a directed response to the employer who also has a presence on social media. Please reach out to your area steward if you are interested.

Much-needed support for a colleague in need

Lee Ederer, as many of you know, has been a part of the Cap community for over 25 years. She worked as Divisional Supervisor in Fine & Applied Arts. Sadly, Lee was diagnosed with ALS and needs our help.  She is unable to walk or care for herself without assistance. This disease is unrelenting and there is no cure. Please consider donating to "Let's fill Lee's bucket" a GoFundMe organized by her friend/former coworker and CapU retiree, Alison Bailey.  Link: https://gofund.me/237d5c5c

In solidarity, CFA Job Action Committee