Librarians & Archivists: Bargaining Bulletin Vol. 6, No. 8

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):

• LOU on Members with Disabilities Joint Working Group – the parties are approaching agreement
• LOU Promotion of Members with Continuing Appointment at Assistant Rank – the Employer has rejected this proposal
• LOU on the Ratio of Librarians to Students – UWOFA reasserted this proposal and shared a figure with the Employer showing that the ratio of students to a single librarian or archivist has increased between 2010 and 2019, from 478 to 751 (a 57% increase). The Employer has reiterated that it will not entertain such a proposal. They argue that while we might all be unhappy with these numbers, we have no choice but to do more with less (citing a looming spectre of austerity).
• LOU Member Offices – the Employer rejected this proposal
• Appointments – UWOFA reasserted our proposals regarding how vacancies are dealt with in the case of transfer, secondment, leave, retirement, or resignation. UWOFA countered the Employer’s proposal to increase the possible length of Term Appointments with language that would convert positions filled by Term Appointments to permanent appointments after three years. 
• Library Directors and Heads – UWOFA rejected the Employer’s proposal regarding the length of Acting Directors or Heads. The Employer rejected UWOFA’s proposal regarding on-call work.
• Responsibilities of Members – the Employer agreed to remove the constraint on Academic Activity.
• Retirement and Resignation – the parties are approaching agreement, including on the introduction of a phased retirement supplement. The Employer has rejected UWOFA’s language to protect the complement. 
• Workload – the Employer continues to resist ensuring that workload not be impacted by loss of personnel 

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.