Advocating for Responsible Investment Practices
June 25, 2024
As we come to the end of a full week of bargaining, I would like to extend to this unit and the UWOFA team supporting the negotiation and communication processes a hearty round of gratitude. The strength of this collective is exemplary and indefatigable. Brava.
The Employer returned 1 article:
UWOFA returned 2 articles and 1 Letter of Understanding:
We are at the table next week from Monday to Wednesday.
Today’s session was short but significant in that we were able to outline key concerns about the increasing deprofessionalization of librarianship, informed by both relevant literature and autoethnographic research. Here is what we have to report.
The parties signed off on the LOU Job Descriptions.
UWOFA returned 2 articles and introduced 1 new LOU:
The Employer returned 1 article:
We are at the table again tomorrow for a full day.
This continues to be a busy week of bargaining with UWOFA and the Employer meeting each day. We are pleased by the progress we are making in some areas, but are disappointed to report that we remain far apart in others, most notably any proposals that involve a commitment to maintaining or increasing personnel in the Bargaining Unit.
In the session today the Parties continued to exchange proposals:
UWOFA returned 2 articles and 1 Letter of Understanding
Professional Leave – the parties have agreed to a new accrual timeline for Academic Activity Leaves which allows for Leaves to a maximum of 10 months (previously 9).
Workload – the parties continue to move toward agreement. UWOFA reasserted our language that vacancies shall not increase Member Workload.
LOU Job Descriptions – the parties have agreed on a process to create job descriptions.
The EMPLOYER returned 1 Letter of Understanding
LOU – Annual Planning Process – the parties continue to discuss the relationship between the annual planning process and a Member’s planned activities and contributions.
Related to the LOU – Librarian and Archivist Qualifications, the parties also had a productive discussion about what it would mean to accurately identify and distinguish the roles of librarians and archivists in University documents and communications.
Thank you to everyone who completed the survey about Report and Review last week. Your feedback has been instrumental in helping us to effectively advocate for you at the bargaining table. We intend to discuss this article with the Employer later this week. Tabled proposals will be posted in the shared Member area.
Please save the date for an information session on Wednesday July 5th, 10-11am. This will again be a hybrid session – location and Zoom link to follow.
This is a busy week of bargaining as UWOFA and the Employer have 4 days of consecutive meetings scheduled.
The parties have now signed off on Working Conditions.
In the session today the Parties also exchanged a number of previously tabled proposals (4 LOUs and 5 Articles):
UWOFA tabled a new LOU Job Descriptions which would classify the existing role definitions as job descriptions under the Collective Agreement and require the Employer to create job descriptions for any positions without an existing role definition. This LOU also reiterates existing processes in the Collective Agreement for changing a Member’s job description. The Employer accepted this proposal.
As always, details of the proposals discussed today can be accessed by Bargaining Unit Members in the Sync folder.
The Employer plans to bring responses to UWOFA’s monetary proposals next week. These include: Compensation and Benefits; Income Security; Pregnancy, Parental and Adoption Leave; and Vacations and Holidays.
Bargaining will continue through Friday, with three sessions also scheduled at the start of next week and three more following the long weekend.
LONDON, June 14th, 2023 – On Friday June 9th, UWOFA held a meeting of members and invited guests, to discuss academic freedom in the context of threats to research security and recent changes to government policies which place limits on both what research can be done and with whom. These policies have had a chilling effect on the capacity of many of our academic colleagues (both at Western and across the country) to do their work.
UWOFA is very concerned about these serious issues. Our goals with this session were to ensure members were well-informed, by including speakers representing a variety of vantage points, and to remind everyone that academic freedom is a lynchpin of scholarship which we all must defend.
Currently, UWOFA has received minimal guidance from our Employer regarding what constitutes a research threat, how Members should respond if they are contacted by a CSIS agent, and how any information collected will be treated (where it will be stored and for how long, who has access to it).
UWOFA is calling for our Employer to commit to the Pearson-Laskin Accord particularly the following principles: Members need to be advised of their rights should they ever encounter CSIS agents, and Western Administration needs to be transparent in communicating with UWOFA regarding CSIS interventions, including letting us know when and how any collaboration between our Employer and government security agencies is taking place.
For more information please contact: uwofaco@uwo.ca
UWOFA and the Employer had their fourth bargaining meeting June 12.
In this session UWOFA presented all of our remaining proposals and the Parties exchanged a number of articles previously tabled. The Parties are reaching agreement on some; however, the Employer expressed strong rejection of a number of our proposals today.
UWOFA Presented 2 Articles and 1 Letter of Understanding
The Parties Exchanged Several Articles
Bargaining will resume next week on Tuesday, June 20th, with meetings continuing to the end of the week.
Thank-you to everyone who attended the Bargaining Information session last week (May 31st), both in person and remotely. We appreciate your time, attention and input, as we work collaboratively to bargain for a strong collective agreement for all.
A copy of the slides are available in the Sync shared folder to which all Members of the Bargaining Unit have access. Please speak to a member of the CBC if you are accessing the folder for the first time.
UWOFA and the Employer had their third bargaining meeting on June 6. All of the tabled bargaining proposals are available in the Sync shared folder.
In this session the Employer returned 3 articles with amended language for discussion – Report and Review, Promotion and Continuing Appointment, and Working Conditions:
Annual Report and Review
Promotion and Continuing Appointment
Working Conditions
Bargaining will resume Monday, June 12th.
Now that bargaining is underway, we have begun to share a series of videos introducing L&A members. You can find them on our various social media channels: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They will also be archived on the UWOFA website. Please share widely!
UWOFA and the Employer had their second bargaining meeting on May 16.
We have now signed off on additional Housekeeping items: one LOU – regarding Covid-19 Pandemic Provisions, and one Article – Professional Expense Reimbursement. The LOU documents accommodations provided during Covid, setting a precedent for any future disaster scenarios. PER claims can now be submitted up until the expiry of any new Collective Agreement provided they are incurred within the allotted time-frame.
In this session UWOFA presented proposals for 8 articles and 5 Letters of Understanding (LOUs) – 3 of which are new:
Appointments
Education Leave
Library Directors and Heads
Professional Leave
Responsibilities of Members
Retirement and Resignation
Vacation and Holidays
Workload
LOU: Annual Planning Process
LOU (New): Librarian and Archivist Qualifications
LOU (New): Promotion of Members with Continuing Appointment at Assistant Rank
LOU (New): Ratios of Librarians and Archivists to Students
LOU: Transition Promotion Fund
We will continue to post articles as we open them in a Bargaining Unit Member-only space. Members can also find details of the Employer’s proposals and signed-off items from Housekeeping there. UWOFA-LA Members should contact a member of the Collective Bargaining Committee (CBC – see below) who will then facilitate their access to this folder:
The Employer has asked to take Friday’s scheduled session for their own caucus and the UWOFA Negotiations Team has agreed. As we have shared twenty proposals with them over two days, I am sure they have a lot to discuss.
Bargaining will resume June 6th.
Please Save the Date: Wednesday, May 31st, 11am-12pm for a Bargaining Information Meeting. More info to come soon.
UWOFA and the Employer had their first bargaining meeting on May 15, 2023. Chief Negotiator Johanna Weststar opened the meeting by highlighting key issues and goals for this round of bargaining – complement, workload, recognition of professionalisation, and compensation. The Employer has signalled an intention to do what they reasonably can to reflect post Bill-124 settlements emerging in the sector, while also alluding to concerns about fiscal prudence, which are not unfamiliar.
Some housekeeping items remain to be concluded, but we expect to be done with them by the end of the week. We shared an overview of all our proposals and presented the ones listed below. The Employer presented three non-monetary proposals for Annual Report and Review (ARR), Appointments, and Library Directors & Heads.
UWOFA is proposing to open 15 articles and 4 Letters of Understanding (LOUs). Many proposals seek to achieve parity with the gains of the recently negotiated Faculty Collective Agreement. Additionally the UWOFA negotiating team is proposing 4 new LOUs, addressing support for members with disabilities, establishing an appropriate ratio of Librarians & Archivists to students, ensuring recognition and protection of professional qualifications, and providing a pathway to promotion for members grandparented at Assistant with Continuing status.
UWOFA presented proposals in full for 5 articles and 2 LOUs:
Report and Review
Income Security
Pregnancy, Parental and Adoption Leave
Promotion and Continuing Appointment
Working Conditions
LOU: Members with Disabilities Joint Working Group (JWG)
LOU: Member Offices
We will continue to post articles as we open them in a Bargaining Unit Member-only space. Members can also find details of the Employer’s proposals and signed-off items from Housekeeping there. UWOFA-LA Members should contact a member of the Collective Bargaining Committee (CBC – see below) to get access to this folder:
Bargaining continues this week with meetings scheduled on May 16 in the afternoon and again on Friday May 19. You can look forward to a new update shortly after each session.
UWOFA has been hard at work and has much to report to members. Items herein are crucial for the climate and conditions of our workplace. Please read on!
Bargaining Bulletin
UWOFA Librarians and Archivists are about to begin bargaining. All members will want to be watching closely and are being called on to support a successful process.
UWOFA LA and the Employer are very close to completing the pre-bargaining Housekeeping process. We are pleased to report that it is going smoothly and quickly. In addition to the correction of typos, institutional name changes and revisions reflecting gender neutral terminology, we made numerous changes to align the Librarian and Archivist Collective Agreement with newly negotiated changes in the Faculty Collective Agreement. This has allowed our Negotiating team to achieve six bargaining goals while also improving additional processes and benefits.
Notable gains include:
We have posted the signed off Housekeeping articles in a Bargaining Unit Member-only space. UWOFA-LA Members should contact a member of the Collective Bargaining Committee (CBC) to get access to this folder:
Bargaining will begin next week with the first meeting scheduled on Monday, May 15 from 2-4pm and subsequent meetings on May 16 from 1-4pm and May 19 from 9am-noon.
Fund the Front Line
Members will also be wanting to watch what is happening in the post-Bill 124 landscape with collective bargaining in the province and UWOFA’s related Fund the Front Line campaign.
Ontario hospital nurses were recently awarded additional pay after Bill 124 was struck down. We continue to urge our Employer to do the right thing and return to the bargaining table regarding Faculty compensation. We encourage members to direct their concerns about this to Western leadership. This pressure is effective as it has already resulted in the Provost’s approval of our proposal that the promotion bonus eligibility be extended to all Faculty members whose promotion to Associate or Full Professor takes effect as of July 1, 2023.
Last week UWOFA members joined Western graduate students on International Workers’ Day for the Nation-wide walkout calling for additional federal research funding. I was inspired by the turn-out and encouraged to see growing intergenerational solidarity amongst various campus groups.
We are better together and must commit to working together. If you haven’t done so already, please sign and send our letter to Western leadership, calling for them to reopen the negotiation of faculty salaries and to bargain a fair contract for Librarians and Archivists which redresses the wrongs of Bill 124.