If you travelled to campus recently, you may have noticed that port-a-potties have now been installed in preparation for possible strike action. Bargaining continues this week, but time is running out until we are in a legal strike position.

Given the recent passage of Bill 28 which aggressively attacks workers’ rights in Ontario, good faith collective bargaining is more important than ever.

Please find attached an update on our bargaining progress to date, and a resource for class talks with students.

As we announced earlier in the week, UWOFA stands with the CUPE education workers as they fight back against the Ontario’s government in its attempt to interfere with fair and democratic collective bargaining by hastily legislating an imposed deal and banning the constitutional rights of these workers to strike. 

Urgent collective action is needed to oppose Bill 28 (the legislation being tabled right now). 

Both CUPE and the London Labour Council are calling for mass mobilization on Friday (tomorrow) to support education worker picket lines across the province, as they will either be in a legal strike position, or off the job in response to unjust legislation.   

Please use the Picket Line Finder to find local picket lines (you can join anytime between 7:30am and 6pm). As there are no PC MPPs in London, NDP MPP’s have been notified that their offices will be the site of friendly solidarity info pickets. This is where you will find your local CUPE education workers on Friday, November 4th – not outside of schools.  

If your child’s school is closed for the day and they are at home doing remote learning, please bring them with you to any action you take part in. You are also encouraged to visit the UWOFA office on the 2nd floor of Elborn College to collect buttons, a t-shirt and/or a toque to wear on the line, and to post pictures on social media with the hashtags #OntEd and #39kIsNotEnough to amplify your support. Please also tag @UWOFA1 on Twitter, @UWOFA on Facebook, and @uwofaco on Instagram. The UWOFA office opens at 9am. 

 Please see picket location details below: 

• Teresa Armstrong MPP, 155 Clarke Rd, London, N5W 5C9 
• Peggy Sattler’s Office MPP, 240 Commissioners Rd W Unit 101, London, N6J 1Y1 

UWOFA stands with education workers in Ontario, represented by CUPE-OSBCU (Ontario School Board Council of Unions). We condemn the Ontario government’s proposed back-to-work legislation which seeks to interfere with free and democratic collective bargaining. We are further appalled by the threat being made to invoke the notwithstanding clause to protect this despicable legislation from constitutional and legal challenges. 

 We call on members to take part in a coordinated solidarity action on Friday, November 4th (stand by for a follow-up message regarding how/where in London, ON) to support our fellow workers in the education sector.  

 You can also take action right now: Tell Doug Ford: Hands off workers’ rights! Stop the attack on education workers! 

 An attack on collective bargaining and the legally protected right to strike is a threat to labour laws, charter-protected rights, and fair working conditions everywhere. 

The “No Board” report UWOFA requested last week was filed yesterday with the Ministry of Labour. This means that our Union will be in a legal strike position as of 12:01am Sunday, November 13th and our Employer will also be in a legal position to lock us out.  You can Take Action now to avert this. 

Bargaining continues with a full slate of sessions planned over the next two weeks, and the UWOFA Board of Directors will ultimately determine a strike deadline, but we must be prepared for all contingencies.

If you have not already done so, please fill out the Strike Action Questionnaire immediately to ensure your voice is heard. There is a lot of volunteer labour involved for the Strike Action Committee to process this information for the entire membership, so the sooner all Members complete the questionnaire, the better.  

As we meet with the Employer to negotiate a Labour Disruption Protocol, we will be preparing detailed FAQs to address the many questions arising about how a strike would impact members of the campus community. Please stand by for links to this information in the coming days. 

We are tired of our concerns being ignored and dismissed. Although none of us want a strike, our working conditions are worsening and will ultimately become unsustainable. Faculty workload burden must be eased. Western’s strategic plan proposes an increased enrolment to 50,000 by 2030. Yet the administration refuses to negotiate real solutions to this problem, even as Full-Time faculty numbers decrease and precariously employed faculty numbers grow. Student class size increases are outpacing the available space on campus, and we are all forced to do a lot more with much less. 

Every budgetary choice to not support faculty is exactly that: a choice — our Employer could instead choose to use its $1.3 billion in surplus funds to support the academic mission of our University. The pandemic has left us burnt out and overworked, while Western has accumulated larger surpluses than ever before. Western can afford to alleviate the problems that your negotiating team has raised at the table: excessive workload, unequal access to benefits, precarious employment for contract faculty.

The UWOFA bargaining team has proposed creative solutions to the weightiest challenges we face in our jobs, but too many of the answers we hear at the bargaining table are “no” or “we don’t know.” 

“No” is neither creative, nor respectful. We deserve more, and we need to show the Employer we are serious about getting it. The UWOFA Faculty Bargaining Unit has never gone on strike but we are demanding better. If the Employer continues to make choices which don’t respect or support faculty, then they will leave us no choice but to strike to defend our rights and the core mission of the University. Together we can avert a strike. Take Action now to build a more sustainable campus community for everyone.

Thank you Members who have filled out the Strike Information Questionnaire. This
information helps our planning to adequately support Members in the event of a strike or lockout. For those who haven’t yet responded, please fill out the survey as soon as possible.

Updates on Negotiations

There have been three bargaining meetings over the last two weeks. Progress has
been limited with the Employer only now addressing Letters of Understanding on equity issues (i.e., Working Groups for Members with disabilities and Service workload for equity-deserving groups) which we filed some time ago. Disappointingly, the Employer’s response to both was “no”.

See Appendix A for an updated list of proposals and their status as of October 21st.

Last Thursday afternoon, we requested that Paul Pooler, the provincially appointed conciliator, file a “No Board” report with the Ministry of Labour. Once that report is filed, and an additional 17 days have passed, we will be in a legal strike position, supported by a strong strike mandate from the Membership last month (91% of votes cast were YES).

While the filing of a No Board Report is the final mechanism in making a strike or a lockout possible, this does not mean that negotiations are at an impasse. The Negotiating team will continue to work at the table for a fair and equitable agreement for all Members.

There are two bargaining meetings scheduled for this week and nine more planned for the coming weeks. Tomorrow (Tuesday), we plan to reply to the Employer’s proposal on compensation and benefits. Paul Pooler will be present at that time, along with Ruban Chelladurai, Associate VP, Institutional Planning & Budgeting.

What can you do?

• Talk to your students about bargaining (see attached slide which can be included in lectures). Encourage students to follow UWOFA on social media and direct them to the student page of our website which is regularly updated. Direct their concerns about a possible strike to Western’s senior administration (see more below).
• Help avert a strike! Send Western’s senior administrators a letter urging them to reach a fair and equitable deal with UWOFA in a timely manner that avoids a strike. The letter is ready to go on the Take Action page of the UWOFA website. All you need to do is fill in the email form with your details. Share this link with current and former students, colleagues and supportive community members.

Please see attached pdf below for the full Bargaining Bulletin and Appendix A: Core UWOFA Proposals Organized by Mandate.

As we reported earlier in the week, we now have a strong strike authorization mandate, with a 91% YES vote. This mandate is an important tool that will help us to get the fair and equitable deal we deserve. Great work to everyone who helped to organize and “get out the vote”, and to all who cast a ballot!

Updates on Negotiations

There have been five bargaining meetings over the last two weeks, with the conciliator at the table on September 28th and October 6th. Some progress is being made. The parties have now reached sign-off on six articles and we have received an initial response to our compensation and benefits proposals. See Appendix A for an updated list of our proposals and the Employer’s responses as of October 6th. The “No” column has grown from 20 to 26.5, while we still await a response to 6 items.

We received the Employer’s monetary proposal yesterday, Oct 6th. Our team is still analyzing it, but our initial impression is that it is insufficient and based on a limited reading of Bill 124. For instance, the Employer has rejected our proposal to increase flex credits for Full-Time Members and to increase Professional Expense Reimbursement (PER) for Part-Time Members. In addition, their proposal makes no indication of an intention to reinvest the savings that the Employer will accumulate under Bill 124. The difference between a 1% scale increase in each of the next three years and the 1.75% that we received in the final year of our last agreement amounts to $4.8 million. We are eagerly waiting to find out whether these savings will be invested to support the academic mission by hiring more faculty, for example, to reduce the workload burden.

Your Negotiating Team remains concerned that the Employer continues to reject many of our proposals for contract faculty and to refuse to redress inequities in treatment across our membership. The Employer seems determined to divide and differentiate us with artificial classifications. For instance:

• They continue to refuse sabbatical eligibility for many Limited-Term Members;
• They have rejected our proposal to redress significant pay inequities in the Department of Music Performance;
• They have not come far enough to ensure job security for contract faculty;
• They have not responded to our proposal for health benefits for Part-Time Members;

Importantly, the Employer has shown no effort to solve our growing workload burden, even though they acknowledge that it is a significant problem. They refuse to negotiate to increase faculty complement, essentially throwing up their hands in the face of the exhausting overwork our Members are experiencing.

The next bargaining meeting is scheduled for October 14th.

What happens next?

While we will continue to work at the table to achieve the improvements to our Collective Agreement we have all earned (and we know our Employer can afford), we must also continue to plan and prepare for a scenario where our Employer will only acquiesce to our demands with additional pressure. So, with this in mind, we are now asking Members to fill out our Strike Information Questionnaire, which will help us to serve and support the membership in case of a strike or lockout. We need to know how to reach you off campus, what duties you would be volunteering for in order to collect strike pay, and what other specific circumstances may apply in case of a strike or a lockout. We also have some other preparedness steps we suggest you begin thinking about now.

What can you do?

We know that the list of suggestions below looks familiar, but that is because these strategies are effective.

• Talk to your students about bargaining. Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions, and if a recent Gazette editorial is any indication, students are becoming increasingly aware that Western’s current budget choices do not make the people who deliver their education a priority. Encourage students to follow UWOFA on social media and direct them to the student page of our website which is regularly updated.
• Tell Western where you think the budget surplus should go (see Every Budget is a Choice 3.0):
• Get loud on social media and make sure to tag us! Twitter: @westernu @westernuProvost @uwofa1; Facebook: @UWOFA, @Western University; Instagram: @uwofaco, @westernuniversity
• Send a letter or an email to the President and Provost (cc uwofa):

uwofa@uwo.ca

alan.shepard@uwo.ca

provostvpa@uwo.ca

• Get in touch with UWOFA’s Communications Officer to make a short video expressing a message of support or highlighting how a particular bargaining goal impacts you personally. This video will then be posted to social media.
• Sign the Bargaining Support Statement – reach out to your faculty representative or to UWOFA’s Past President Nigmendra Narain for more information.
• In the coming weeks we will be calling on people to help with leafleting and putting up posters around campus. If you are able to help build support for UWOFA bargaining goals in this way, please contact UWOFA’s Mobilization Chair, David Heap.

Please see attached pdf below for the full Bargaining Bulletin and Appendix A: Core UWOFA Proposals Organized by Mandate.

We are pleased to report that 91% of ballots cast were YES votes, in support of the UWOFA Board of Directors authorizing strike action if necessary.

Thank you to all who worked on organizing and mobilizing the strike vote, and to all who cast a ballot last week. This strong show of support will certainly strengthen our Negotiating Team’s ability to bargain better provisions for reward and recognition of faculty effort, equitable workloads, health and wellness, and job security, as they return to the table with our Employer on October 4th, 5th, and 6th.

Stay tuned for a detailed bargaining update later this week, which will address next steps, as well as a strike-preparedness survey and suggestions for classroom messaging.

Here is all the information you need to Vote “YES” to a strike vote next week.

WHEN

Between 1:30pm on Monday, September 26th and noon on Friday, September 30th. If you register to vote online, you may cast your ballot at any time during this period, once you have received an email confirming your registration (see “How” below). If you plan to vote in-person on campus, please see below for polling station dates, locations and hours.

HOW

Both online and in-person voting options are available. If you wish to vote online, you must register in advance. The deadline to do so, is Thursday, September 22nd. If you are voting in person, you will need to bring ID.

WHERE

• Monday, Sept. 26th, Labatt Health Sciences Building (HSB), Lobby – 1:30-7pm
• Tuesday, Sept. 27th, University College (UC), Room 3225 (following info session) and Hallway – 1:30-7pm
• Wednesday, Sept. 28th, Social Science Centre (SSC), 2nd Floor Lobby- 9am-7pm
• Thursday, Sept. 29th, Middlesex College (MC) Lobby – 9am-7pm
• Friday, Sept. 30th, Elborn College (EC), Room 2120 (UWOFA Office) – 9am-12noon

If your next question is why, you can find our detailed explanation for calling for a Strike Vote in this week’s Bargaining Bulletin, which outlines the hard work your Negotiating Team has been doing at the table.

Please also plan to attend one of the information meetings being held at the start of next week:

• Monday, September 26th, 11:30am-1:30pm, via Zoom (look for the link in your email)
• Tuesday, September 27th, 11:30am-1:30pm, University College, Room 3225 (please note that you will be able to vote in person, immediately following this meeting)

Your support will make a difference and we all need to show strong solidarity to achieve our bargaining goals. Vote “YES” and help empower your Negotiating Team to get a fair and equitable deal which honours your hard work and commitment to university education.

This week’s Bargaining Update provides an overview of negotiating progress so far and explains why we are now calling for a strike vote.

To date, the Employer has said “no” outright to 20 of our 55 proposals, while considering an additional 3 to be constrained by Bill 124. Twenty more proposals still await a response. The Employer does not seem to be negotiating in a way which takes into consideration the substantial impacts of the last two-and-a-half years on faculty workload and wellbeing, despite the administration’s expressions of gratitude for our service in their public relations communications.

If the current rate of inflation holds, Faculty could be looking at a 25% pay cut over three years. Bill 124, meanwhile, saves the Employer $1-1.7M per year. We would like to see those dollars reinvested in the core mission of the university, but it’s now clear that the Employer is not going to do the right thing without some additional pressure.

In the attached document you will find a detailed record of proposals and responses from both sides of the table, along with a Strike Vote FAQ.

We encourage you to come out to one of these two information meetings scheduled for next week:

• Monday, September 26th, 11:30am-1:30pm, via Zoom (link to follow)
• Tuesday, September 27th, 11:30am-1:30pm, University College, Room 3225

Help empower your Negotiating Team to get the best deal possible for you, by voting “YES”!