The UWOFA membership has voted to ratify the tentative faculty collective agreement reached with the university administration.

Members of the faculty bargaining unit voted 90 per cent in favour of the deal in a vote that closed Friday, November 23. Visit the private members’ area of the UWOFA website for a summary of the tentative deal.

Your negotiating team and the university administration reached a tentative agreement on Friday, November 9 after 25 bargaining meetings.

The UWOFA Board of Directors has recommended that the tentative faculty collective agreement reached with the administration on Friday November 9 be brought to the membership for ratification.

An overview of the tentative agreement will be provided at a faculty Bargaining Unit meeting on Tuesday, November 20, University College Room 3110 (Conron Hall) from 12:30-2:30 p.m.

Members can also review details of the tentative agreement by signing into the private members’ area of the UWOFA website. Sign in with your UWO username and password.

Ratification Vote

You may cast your ratification ballot at the following locations:

• Thursday, November 22, 9:00 a.m. – 7 p.m., Social Science Centre 2nd floor lobby

• Friday, November 23, 9:00 a.m. – 4 p.m., Middlesex College main lobby

Please bring your university ID card or another piece of photo identification with you to the polls.

Electronic Voting

E-voting will also be available for those who will be away from the university and away from London during the ratification vote. Rest assured that the online voting system is secure and that your vote will remain anonymous. To participate in this electronic vote, you must contact the UWOFA office (uwofa@uwo.ca) before 4 p.m. on Tuesday, November 20 with the following information:

1. your name and faculty/department;
2. your employee number;
3. the email address you are currently using; and
4. the nature of your leave and the reason(s) you are unable to vote on campus.

Those who are placed on the e-vote list will be removed from the paper voters list. They will not be able to cast their ballot in person. These members will receive an email on Wednesday, November 21 with detailed e-vote instructions.

The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) is pleased to announce that a tentative faculty collective agreement has been reached with the university administration.

“I’m so proud of our negotiating team for all their hard work and really thankful to the membership for their support of the team,” said UWOFA president Dan Belliveau.

The deal was reached early Friday morning, Nov. 9, after 25 bargaining sessions.

Further details will be made available in the coming days. A date for the ratification vote has yet to be determined.

UWOFA was pushing for more job security for contract faculty and compensation for all faculty members.

The 1,600 unionized full- and part-time faculty members at Western have been without a contract since June 30, 2018.

Yesterday, at this late stage in bargaining, the employer asked your negotiating team for concessions in our existing health benefits package – concessions that had not been proposed in their previous offers at the table. The employer offered a small salary increase that does not begin to close the wage gap that exists between Western and its comparator institutions (Guelph, McMaster, Waterloo and Queens). In fact it will only widen that gap over the period of the contract. What is being offered is still below many other recent settlements at Ontario universities. To add insult to injury, the employer has failed to offer anything significant to improve job security for our contract faculty members.

As detailed in previous Bargaining Bulletins, Western’s financial position is extremely strong, and yet the Board of Governors and administration consistently choose not to reinvest in the university’s core mission of quality education, teaching and research. Our examination of the university’s budget reveals the university has accumulated close to $700 million in surplus over the past 9 years. And a recent fund-raising campaign raised over $800 million. All this while student tuition has risen steadily over the past 5 years. It’s no wonder that Western enjoys a strong AA credit rating from Standard and Poor’s. Western can easily afford to reinvest in the university’s core mission, and it’s time they did.

Western’s financial position is extremely strong, and yet the Board of Governors and administration consistently choose not to reinvest in the core mission of quality education, teaching and research. As our examination of the university’s budget reveals, the university has accumulated close to $700 million in surplus over the past 9 years. It recently completed a fund-raising campaign that raised over $800 million. Student tuition has been rising steadily over the past 5 years. In February of 2018, Standard and Poor’s affirmed Western’s AA credit rating, noting the university’s “high levels of cash and available financial resources.” According to the rating agency, Western’s “financial assets are sufficient such that it would likely not default on its obligations under a provincial stress scenario in which all government funding was temporarily disrupted”.

Western can easily afford to reinvest in the university’s core mission, but they have repeatedly failed to do so. Instead, the administration has regularly imposed budget cuts on all faculties over the past decade (3% cuts are being demanded again this year). These cuts have degraded the quality of education and research at Western, increased class sizes, and reduced the amount of support staff and resources. Contract faculty have lost their jobs, while many others still lack any kind of meaningful job security. As a recent report by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) indicates, precarious employment disproportionately affects women and racialized faculty. In addition, full-time faculty members’ salaries and benefits have steadily deteriorated; Western is ranked 11^th in the province for average full-time compensation.

There is a clear pattern here. During each round of contract negotiations over the past decade, the administration tells UWOFA that it can’t afford to pay or support its faculty, librarians and archivists fairly. It’s the same story this year. The priorities and choices set by Western’s annual budget have already ensured that there is no money available to meet our compensation and job security proposals. It doesn’t have to be this way. Every budget, especially a budget during times of surplus, is a choice.

Compensation and Benefits

Faculty members across the university have been more than patient with Western’s administration. Under the guise of ‘austerity’ or ‘political uncertainty’, we have seen our wages stagnate and decline, with yearly scale increases falling below the rate of inflation. As of 2016, based on the latest available University and College Academic Staff System (UCASS) data, Western sits at 11th place in the province in terms of average full-time salary for its professors.

The administration is now offering a 1.25% scale increase for all faculty– part-time and full-time— over 4 years; well below the average rate of inflation of 2%., and well behind recent settlements at other universities (1.5% at Guelph, 1.7% at McMaster, 1.75% at Queen’s, and 2.6% at Waterloo). If we accept the administration’s offer, Western’s salaries are certain to fall even further behind our comparators’ in the years ahead. UWOFA estimates that beginning to close the gap would have a negligible impact on the enormous surpluses accumulated by the university. For the health of the university, however, the impact of reinvestment in faculty compensation would be huge; it would boost morale and deter faculty from seeking jobs elsewhere.

It’s difficult to imagine that Western would find an 11^th place ranking acceptable in any other sphere of university operations. When it comes to faculty compensation however, they are fine with being far less than ‘extraordinary’.

Job security for contract academic staff

Approximately 30% of UWOFA academic staff currently have no meaningful job security. This lack of security not only negatively affects our contract colleagues, it affects all of us. It makes curricular planning and development difficult and increases the service and supervisory load for probationary and tenured faculty. It also means these colleagues lack academic freedom, which has serious implications for their pedagogical decision-making and for the future of academic freedom in general.

While there has been some small movement at the table recently, the administration remains reluctant to engage substantively with UWOFA’s proposals to improve job security for contract academic staff –colleagues with limited-duties (LD) and limited-term (LT) appointments.

There is no doubt that Western is flush with cash.  Similarly, there is no doubt that the university’s financial well-being is, at least partially, built upon the hard work, low compensation and lack of job security of UWOFA members.

It’s well past time to re-invest in Western’s core mission of teaching and research. Our students and faculty deserve better, and the resources are there to make it happen. Western’s Board of Governors and administration simply have to choose to make it so.

No one wants a strike at Western. Please rest assured that UWOFA, your professors’ association, is working as hard as we can to avoid one. A strike deadline of November 9, 2018 has been set, but UWOFA and Western Admin are still negotiating and will be doing so right up to the deadline or a settlement is reached. If a deal seems likely, the deadline can also be deferred or delayed.

We know talk of a strike causes students a lot of anxiety, so we’ve prepared a set of answers to frequently asked questions here.

Remember: Western administration does not ‘own’ the university. Students, librarians and archivists, staff, and faculty comprise the heart of Western.

Q: What are the issues?

We are working on two main issues this round of bargaining: job security for contract faculty members and compensation that keeps pace with the rate of inflation.

Q: How do these issues affect students?

The quality of your education is deeply connected to the working conditions of your professors. We work to protect and enhance our working conditions at Western but doing this protects and enhances your learning conditions.

• Have you ever had trouble contacting a professor whose class you wished to take, or who you wanted to ask for a letter of reference? Have you noticed that some of the classes you sign up for do not have a faculty member’s name attached to them until the very last minute? Well over 30% of teachers at Western are paid per course, work on short-term contracts, and have no job security, benefits or pensions. Many of these professors are barely scraping by because Western’s administration is addicted to this cheap, just-in-time model of employment. Improving job security and compensation for these contract faculty members is a major issue for UWOFA in this round of bargaining.
• Did you know that Western has accumulated over half a billion dollars in operating surpluses over the last 6 years? All this while the university continues to impose budget cuts on faculties, which will inevitably result in expanded class sizes, job losses and strains on resources. Western is ranked 11th in the province in terms of average full-time faculty compensation and its compensation for contract faculty is similarly low. Low levels of compensation can mean higher rates of faculty attrition; some faculty will simply leave Western for better-paying jobs elsewhere. Fair compensation that keeps pace with the rate of inflation for all faculty members is another goal for us.

Job security for contract faculty and fair compensation for all faculty members can only improve the quality of your education at Western.

Q: What is UWOFA fighting for?

UWOFA is alarmed that Western has abandoned its core mission of high-quality teaching and research and failed to reinvest in its front line people.  We are fighting for job security for contract faculty and appropriate compensation for all faculty members.

Q: How will the strike affect me?

Classes will almost certainly be cancelled in the event of a strike. Your professors will not be coming on to campus for office hours and will likely not be available on email or on OWL. Although UWOFA regrets the very real disruption in your academic year that a strike may entail, all of this is done in the long-term interests of improving the quality of education at Western.

Q: What will it involve?

You will see pickets lines at university main entrances. These picket lines will not prevent access to the university grounds. Please feel free to stop and chat with professors on the picket lines. If you want, you can even join us!

Q: How long will it last?

The length of the possible strike will be determined by progress at the bargaining table. This necessarily involves both our Employer (UWO administration) and UWOFA.

Q: Who makes the decision about my exams and academic year?

All issues to do with academic accommodation for missed classes and exams will be determined by the administration. Please contact the president and provost directly.

Graduate students will most certainly have other unanswered questions.

• I’m a TA – will I still receive my pay?

Most likely, but please check with your union, PSAC 610, for clarification.

• If there is a strike, will graduate classes and supervisions continue?

No. According to the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS), graduate classes will be cancelled and supervision of graduate students by faculty members will be interrupted.

• What happens if my thesis exam is postponed into the next semester?

If thesis exams are postponed into the next term as a result of a strike, students will not be required to pay tuition for that term.

• Will I still receive my funding?

Yes. According to SGPS, graduate students will continue to receive their funding during a faculty strike.

• Will I still have access to my lab, office and library?

Yes.

• What about the deadlines for my thesis progression? 

Student accommodations have been made during strikes at other Canadian universities for such things as grant deadlines and other program milestones. However, these questions can only be answered by the senior UWO administration, including SGPS, Deans and Associate Deans. We recommend you ask them directly.

Q: Is there anything I can do?

Tell the Administration that you are concerned about the erosion of quality of education at Western, and support UWOFA by going here to send an email to President Amit Chakma, Chair of the Board of Governors Paul Jenkins, and the Provost Andy Hrymak.

If you wish to express a more personal message or ask further questions, you can reach them at President Chakma: achakma@uwo.ca, Paul Jenkins: pjenkin3@uwo.ca , Andy Hrymak: ahrymak@uwo.ca

You may also want to contact your student leaders.

Q: How can I stay updated on the status of contract negotiations?

Check out uwofa.ca, and our Bargaining Bulletins: www.uwofa.ca/news/bargaining-bulletins-faculty

Facebook: UWOFA
Twitter: @UWOFA

A “No Board” Report has been filed with the Ontario Ministry of Labour by provincially appointed conciliator Greg Long. The UWOFA faculty bargaining unit will be in a legal strike position on Friday November 9 at 12:01 a.m., and UWOFA’s Executive Committee has established this date as our firm strike deadline.

Talks with the employer are continuing, however. Our bargaining team heads back to the table this week, with eight negotiating sessions, five of them full day sessions, scheduled between October 30 and November 8. We remain hopeful that a deal can be reached at the table before the deadline.

While we are doing everything we can to avert a strike, we must prepare for one nonetheless. We recognize that members will have questions about the possibility of a strike. Please click here for answers to some of those questions.

These guidelines represent policy adopted by the UWOFA Board of Directors; they represent what your Board is expecting of all Bargaining Unit members. The decision to honour or break a strike is the individual’s own. This is something that neither the Association nor the Administration can decide for you.

Q: What does it mean that UWOFA has set a strike deadline of November 9, 2018 at 12:01 a.m.? 

It means that unless our negotiating team reaches a tentative settlement by this date and time, or a settlement seems imminent, unionized faculty at Western will go on strike.

Q: What is the rush? 

We have been in negotiations since June, with over 25 bargaining sessions completed, and have been through both mediation and conciliation. We believe our actions have been measured; we have only arrived at this point because all other efforts have failed. Moreover, in a strike situation, timing is crucial to ensure that strike action is as effective as possible – and the more effective strike action is, the shorter strikes tend to be. Once confirmation was received that a No-Board Report was filed with the Labour Ministry on October 23, 2018, we were able to calculate that we would be in a legal strike position on November 9, 2018 at 12:01 a.m. UWOFA’s executive has since confirmed this date and time as our strike deadline.

Q: Have negotiations been suspended? 

No, UWOFA negotiators continue to work hard at the negotiating table to arrive at an acceptable collective agreement. Please stay tuned for an announcement from the UWOFA president on November 8 about whether we will be striking. We remain cautiously optimistic that we can reach an agreement without having to strike.

Q: Have UWOFA faculty ever set a strike deadline before? 

Yes, in 2010 UWOFA set a strike deadline of early November if sufficient progress was not reached in faculty negotiations. UWOFA and the university administration were in conciliation in October, and a tentative agreement was eventually reached a few hours before the strike deadline. In 2011, UWOFA’s librarians and archivists were out on strike for approximately 2 weeks before a settlement was reached.

Q: What concrete preparations has UWOFA made for a possible strike on November 9, 2018? 

* UWOFA has moved to its strike headquarters and we are now ready with pickets, transportation, finance and all other aspects of strike preparation. If you have yet to fill out this strike questionnaire, please click here to do so as soon as possible. If you have yet to sign up for picket duty, please go here or visit the “Strike Resources” portal at uwofa.ca for the link to do so.

* UWOFA will receive $1 million from the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Defence Fund, and will use this money and our significant reserves to provide strike pay of $125 a day seven days a week, beginning on the fourth day of a strike, for all unionized faculty who withdraw their services and participate in strike duty. This pay is tax-free and without deductions. Please check the Strike Resources page for more information about strike pay.

Q: Where is the UWOFA Strike Headquarters? 

It is located at 611 Wonderland Road North, on the southeast corner of Oxford and Wonderland in the former Rexall building. There is ample parking.

Q: Will I still have access to my Western email if we go on strike? 

Yes.

Q: Will my benefits continue during the strike? 

Yes. UWOFA has confirmed with the employer that your benefits will continue to be paid during a strike.

Q: I am a part-time faculty Member. Will I also be on strike? 

UWOFA represents all full-time non-clinical faculty members, and all part-time non-clinical faculty members who have had full responsibility at least equivalent to that associated with teaching a half University degree credit course in each of two of the last three fiscal years. If you are currently working as a Member of the faculty bargaining unit represented by UWOFA, your last earnings statement will show union dues are being deducted.

* If you are a Member of the faculty bargaining unit, you are eligible to receive the same strike pay as full-time faculty members ($125 per day, seven days a week, beginning on the fourth day of a strike), provided that you withdraw your services and participate in strike duty.

* If you are not a Member of the faculty bargaining unit at this time, you would not be on strike, and therefore should continue to fulfill your contractual obligations and should also continue to receive compensation from the University for your work.

Q: I meet the definition of a part-time Member but am not currently teaching. This means that I am a Member with ‘Preferred Status’ under the current UWOFA contract. Will I also be on strike? 

You are eligible to receive the same strike pay as full and part-time faculty Members ($125 per day, seven days a week, beginning on the fourth day of a strike), provided that you withdraw your services and participate in strike duty. If you are not certain of your Preferred Status membership based on past teaching, please contact UWOFA to check.

Q: I am a part-time faculty member who teaches distance courses and I am not in London. How can I participate in the strike? 

If you are a member of the faculty bargaining unit, you should withdraw your services. Please contact UWOFA at uwofamembership@gmail.com to find out what kinds of strike duties can be performed by members who are not in the vicinity of London.

Q: I am a full-time faculty member, but I am currently on leave from the university. Will I be on strike? 

The strike protocol agreed to with the employer stipulates that the following groups will be considered non-participants in the strike and will continue to receive salary and benefits from the university.

* sabbaticants,

* people with modified alternative workloads,

* persons on approved sick leave, and pregnancy, parental or adoption leave;

* persons on pre-approved paid leave of absence (including compassionate leave), court leave, education leave, and exchange leave

If you have questions about your status please email uwofamembership@gmail.com for clarification.

Q: May I continue to do those parts of my job that don’t involve teaching, i.e., go to conferences I have already scheduled, conduct research, write manuscripts, vet applications, and so forth? 

As a striking worker, you are asked to withdraw your labour from the normal work of your bargaining unit; this includes any of the work described as Academic Responsibilities, as modified and reflected in your unit’s Workload description, and/or individual agreements you may have. If you report it on your APE, then it is work for which you are paid, and it is expected such work should not be performed during a work stoppage. The UWOFA Board has decided that attendance and presentations at conferences will not be considered strike breaking if one can demonstrate that those commitments were made before the strike date. Please email uwofamembership@gmail.com if you have any questions about your eligibility.

Q: I have responsibilities on campus such as lab experiments at a crucial phase, animals and plants that must be cared for, or special events that require my attendance. What should I do? 

Picket passes will be made available to individuals under these circumstances on a case-by-case basis. Contact uwofamembership@gmail.com with requests and questions.

Q: I have: a manuscript to finish/ a boatload of Tri-Council grants to review/ letters of recommendations to write… What am I supposed to do about all of that? 

Do what you can before the strike starts to minimize any lasting consequence of a strike action on others: write those letters of recommendation now; finish reviewing that MS; contact editors/grant administrators and explain what could be going on in the event of a strike. What you choose to do once a strike begins, however, is between you and your conscience.

Q: What about internal and external grant deadlines? 

The employer has agreed to extend deadlines for internal grant applications occurring during the period of a labour disruption to a publicized date beyond the end of any labour disruption action. They have also agreed to seek extensions to deadlines for external grant applications from external granting agencies should the deadline fall within a period of a labour disruption.

Q: My Dean/ Associate Dean/ Area Group Director/ Department Chair/ School Director has contacted me and asked/demanded that I cross the picket lines to attend a meeting/conduct classes. What should I do? 

Any such request is or could be seen as a violation of Ontario Labour Law, which holds that the Employer or its designates may not take any action that could be seen to force, threaten, or coerce an employee into abandoning a job action. If these requests are made verbally, ask for them to be made in writing. If you receive a summons from an Area Group Director, Program Director, Dean, or whomever to discuss “the Unit’s policy regarding a job action,” do not attend any such meeting without a colleague with you. If you get a knock on your office door, say you are unable to discuss the matter at this time. You are under no obligation whatsoever to help the Employer (your Dean, Area Director, Program Director, etc.) minimize the effect of the Association’s job action on the work of your unit. Contact the UWOFA Professional Officer at uwofa@uwo.ca immediately if you have concerns about this.

Q: How will UWOFA know if I’m doing these things anyway? 

It won’t. This is between you and your conscience. Your employer may wish to micromanage you; UWOFA does not want to do so.

Q: What if I get an email from a granting agency/ journal editor/ scholarly association during the strike? Can I even respond? 

Of course you can. But we recommend that you advise them that you are on strike, and, as a result, you will not do reviews or assessments during the period of the strike and will likely not be able to meet any deadline that falls within a period of work stoppage.

Q: My TAs and RAs are asking me if they should continue teaching or doing the research duties I assigned them. What should I tell them? 

GTAs are members of a separate bargaining unit with a collective agreement that does not have a reciprocity clause – they do not have leave to honour our strike. Neither you nor UWOFA are their employer. Unless their Employer arranges otherwise, your GTAs must continue to meet their contractual obligations to the extent they are able to when you are not there to supervise their work and there are no lectures being given. You should not provide new material for use in tutorials or tests to your GTA in anticipation of or use over the period of the strike.

With respect to RAs, they are typically paid from one of your research grants, again it is between you and your conscience whether you will allow this work to continue. That being said, your RA will not be on strike and rightfully would expect to be paid for the period.

Q: I have a student preparing to submit her dissertation in December for a late January exam. What should I do? 

It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that it meets the university’s fiduciary obligations to the student. This means, in short, that it is the employer’s problem to do things like waive or pro-rate tuition fees in the event that a protracted work stoppage prevents students from completing degrees. SGPS has recently advised us that if thesis exams are postponed into the next term as a result of a strike, students will not be required to pay tuition for that term.

Q: I saw Professor Rockefeller cross the picket line this morning. Should I report them to somebody? Write them an angry email? 

UWOFA would deeply regret the actions taken by Professor Rockefeller as they are actively undermining what the strike is intended to achieve: a decent and fair settlement. If you feel comfortable engaging with Professor Rockefeller and telling them about UWOFA’s issues, please feel free. Of course, any such engagement must be done respectfully and civilly. UWOFA does not endorse reprisals of any kind against any member of the bargaining unit for any reason.

UWOFA has asked a provincially appointed conciliator to file a “No-Board” Report with the Ministry of Labour. Conciliator Greg Long received the request October 15 following seventeen days of negotiations since June. Your bargaining team requested the report after the employer rejected a number of proposals aimed at providing more job security for contract academic staff and improved compensation for all faculty members.

“We hope the ‘No-Board’ request will help spur progress at the negotiating table,” said UWOFA president Dan Belliveau. “Faculty teaching in contract positions deserve better. Their working conditions are the learning conditions for students, and that’s why our negotiating team remains committed to pursuing a fair and equitable settlement.”

A “No-Board” request does not mean that negotiations have ended or that they have reached an impasse. Negotiating dates are scheduled for October and the parties are arranging additional dates into November.

Members of the faculty bargaining unit voted 94% in favour of giving the negotiating team a strike mandate. UWOFA anticipates being in a legal strike position by the week of November 5.

Please click here for more information about the meaning of a No Board, and stay tuned for more information about the progress of negotiations in the days to come.