Update about the staff union strike: Withdrawal of IT services
As many of you have seen, MoveUP has taken the next step in its strike actions: today the union withdrew the services of all IT staff.
Our MoveUp colleagues advise: “This should have little to no effect directly on faculty or students. Systems will continue to run, and if there are any troubles with them, management has access to those systems in order to repair.”
MoveUP is not putting up a picket line, so they are not asking faculty to withdraw services in solidarity. Although staff are on campus at protest stations to put pressure on the employer, there is no picket line we have to worry about crossing.
Depending how the strike goes, we need to prepare for the possibility of a picket line. The CFA’s job action committee is putting together FAQs. If you have specific questions, please send them to the cfa@capilanou.ca address.
For now, here are key messages for faculty:
There is no MoveUP picket yet, so faculty continue to work as normal. You may see staff colleagues at protest stations. We encourage you to visit them to express your support. Doing so is not a strike action.
If MoveUP does set up a picket line, the CFA hopes all faculty will respect it by not working and if possible joining the MoveUP staff on the picket line—whether or not you are currently working on the physical campus where the pickets are located. The collective agreement makes it your right to support MoveUP and refuse to cross a picket line. (See below for a response to the misleading message Mr Bharadwa sent today.)
If faculty support MoveUP by taking shifts on the picket line, you will receive strike pay. (We will provide more details in the FAQs.)
For now we still have the use of work e-mail, but this underscores the need to provide your non-CapU e-mail address and phone number either to the cfa@capilanou.ca address or to your area steward. This way we can be in touch if we lose access to e-mail.
Finally, in regard to the e-mail that Kartik Bharadwa sent today: His e-mail contained some accurate statements but also some misleading and outright inaccurate comments. We will provide more complete information soon, but would like to correct one of the most concerning inaccuracies now. Mr Bharadwa said that the CFA may punish faculty who cross a picket line. First, it is inappropriate for him to say what the union will do or will not do. Second, his insinuation is wrong:
The CFA does not punish its members. We support our members.
In solidarity,
CFA Job Action Committee
See MoveUP bulletins here: https://moveuptogether.ca/workplace/capilano-university/