Librarians & Archivists: Bargaining Bulletin Vol. 6, No. 16

Today (July 6) the Employer returned two articles: 

• Promotion and Continuing Appointment – almost ready for sign-off

• Appointments – the Employer has withdrawn their proposal to extend Term Appointments from 2 to 4 years in response to our focus on ensuring that vacancies be filled

UWOFA signed off on Pregnancy and Parental/Adoption Leave and presented our response to the Employer’s monetary proposal. Here are the highlights:

• UWOFA reiterated that we do not have a mandate from the Membership to accept any of the monetary options currently on the table and we conveyed the displeasure of the membership with these options. 

• L&A Members deserve to be respected and valued and the size of this Bargaining Unit means that the amount of money we are asking for is well within what the Employer can afford. Workloads and student to Librarian and Archivist ratios are at an all time high which actually saves the Employer money. 

• UWOFA does not agree that a one-time enrollment decline is a justifiable reason to take a position of austerity in these negotiations, especially when this has been a common practice at the table for many years and rounds of bargaining. 

• UWOFA asserts that Western is in a very strong financial position and came through the pandemic in a much better state than many other institutions.  

• UWOFA asserts that the specifics of the monetary offer currently on the table is particularly untenable if the Employer wants a 4-year deal. We have no incentive to accept an unsatisfactory offer and lock ourselves in for any longer than absolutely necessary in this inflationary environment. For this reason we are proposing that the duration of the agreement be only three years. 

The Employer does not agree with our characterisation of their monetary offer and said they will need some time to respond to our proposal. The Employer continues to reject any commitments to maintain let alone increase the complement of Librarians and Archivists. 

Neither party has anything further to bring to the table at this time, so we will now be breaking for the summer. Stay tuned for further updates about UWOFA’s next steps in the bargaining process.

It is time for each Member to take action to get the Employer to do the right thing. If you are interested in working on a mobilization campaign, get in touch with David Heap – djheap@uwo.ca.

But you don’t need to wait. You can start helping to get a fair deal right now! Over the summer, discuss bargaining goals in each and every interaction you have with students, faculty and the broader community. Make your voice and your concerns heard. It’s time to get loud.

Starting tomorrow there will be resources available in the shared Sync folder. These are for you to use and share. They will be updated regularly.