Librarians & Archivists: Bargaining Bulletin – Vol. 6, No. 1 – Notice given

As you know, we are coming into a new bargaining season for the Librarians and Archivists bargaining unit. As with the Faculty negotiations last year, many of the bargaining goals we have identified reflect a common theme – the systemic underfunding of our labour across campus, due to a budget model that is fundamentally broken. This has resulted in burgeoning workloads, demoralised employees, and stagnant salaries (even before the implementation of the now defunct Bill 124). 

Every time we sit down with the Employer to negotiate on behalf of members, we are told that they are constrained by a budget that demands sacrifices, as though the budget brings itself into being independently rather than reflecting the Employer’s own choices. Members have worked incredibly hard to bring Western through the worst of the pandemic and ensure it’s in better financial shape than ever before. Yet our Employer continues to fail to reinvest those gains in the frontline workers who make the university’s core mission of teaching, learning and research happen. 

A better budget is possible, but only if we demand it. Let’s start now! Join your  faculty, librarian and archivist colleagues in calling on Western to fund the frontline!

Fund the Frontline Campaign Launch: Grad Club on Wednesday, April 19th from 3-5pm – with catering and speakers

Last week I gave the Employer our official notice to bargain the librarian and archivist collective agreement. Our Campaign Launch also kickstarts L&A bargaining. Join your colleagues to learn more about this round of negotiations and show your solidarity.

UWOFA-LA Bargaining Update

Five housekeeping meetings have been scheduled for April. The first one was yesterday (April 11th), with more to come on the 19th, 20th, 24th, and 25th. Housekeeping meetings allow the Parties to settle issues that are relatively uncontroversial such as name changes and typos before full bargaining begins. There are many similarities between articles in the Faculty and the Librarians & Archivists collective agreements and important improvements were made to the Faculty agreement in the latest round. The Parties have agreed to apply these changes to the L&A collective agreement during housekeeping. This will maintain the parity of the agreements, achieve some of our L&A goals, and leave more space for discussion of other issues at the main table.

The Parties have also agreed on 16 bargaining dates starting in mid-May and continuing through early July. 

See you at Fund the Frontline Campaign Launch at Grad Club on Wednesday, April 19th from 3-5pm to support our Librarians & Archivist colleagues!