Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 Here are the links to the new agreements for the Academic Units: Full-Time Collective agreement Librarian Collective agreement Contract Faculty Collective agreement
Friday, September 11, 2009 Tuesday, June 23, 2009 The Staff Stewards are looking for APBU representatives for McGreer/Divinity and the Sports Center. If you are interested or would like to recommend someone for one of these postions, please contact any Steward. Thursday, June 18, 2009 Dear Colleagues, APBU and Corporation representatives have opened negotiations on Tuesday, June 16. Two brief meetings were held: one for Contract Faculty and one for Full-Time Faculty and Librarians. In both cases, the negotiating teams introduced themselves and protocol was established. It was also agreed that the APBU would table proposals on minor (non-monetary) issues a month from now. It is to be expected that negotiations will progress slowly over the summer and intensify in the fall. Sincerely, Benoit-Antoine Bacon Academic Chief Negotiator, APBU Friday, May 22, 2009 Please find below the link to the election results. Results from May 21st Elections Tuesday, May 19, 2009 The APBU Annual General Meeting and Elections will be held on May 21st, at 4:30PM in Bandeen. Below is the Agenda for the meeting. Please remember that you have until 4:30PM on Friday, May 15th to send me nomination forms for the positions on the APBU Executive and the Staff Stewards Committee. I am also enclosing forms to do so. The list of Nominees will be distributed at 4:30PM, on Tuesday, May 19th. As usual, Staff
members will be allowed to vote in advance, in my office, starting on
May 20th at 11:00AM and on the 21st, before the
meeting. 1. Call to order 2. Approval of agenda 3. Approval of minutes of the meetings of: · November 12, 2008, · February 17, 2009 and · March 24, 2009 4. Elections · Election for APBU Exec and Staff Stewards council · Election of APBU representatives for the CAUT Defence Fund 5. Business arising -Negotiations update 6. President's report 7. Academic Joint Committee/Grievances report 8. Staff Joint Committee/Grievances report 9. Other Joint Committee reports - Staff joint job classification taskforce committee 10. Treasurer’s report 11. AOB 12. Motion to AdjournMonday, March 23, 2009 As a follow up to this provincial action, the FQPPU invites everyone to sign the petition against Bill 107, now known as "Loi Courchesne". If you are interested in signing this petition, please follow the link below and make sure you are using your University email when signing. Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 |
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On Friday, February 27th, many Universities throughout the Province will be holding various activities in protest of Bill 107, the law on Governance as proposed by Mrs Courchesne, the Minister of Education, Sports and Recreation. In Sherbrooke, the SPPUS, AIPSA and APPRUS (the Sherbrooke University Associations) will be holding a press conference in the morning. Cheryl Gosselin, the APBU President will also be attending this event as we support this position. Please find below an Article from the McGill Tribune on this matter as well as the Press Communiqué from the SPPUS. Buttons are also available in the APBU office (McGreer 304). Board opposes Bill 107Quebec attempts to regulate BoGBy: Theo MeyerPosted: 2/17/09The McGill administration is currently battling a bill that would restructure the way universities in Quebec are governed, and increase the provincial government's in the province's universities.Quebec Minister of Education, Recreation, and Sports Michelle Courchesne first proposed the legislation, known as Bill 107, last fall, but set the the bill aside when Premier Jean Charest announced a December election. The university administration is attempting to move against Bill 107 before the Quebec National Assembly reconvenes in March. According to the most recent available version of the legislation, the bill's aim is to increase university "effectiveness, efficiency, transparency, responsibility, and accountability" by regulating university boards of governors-the highest governing bodies of universities. The bill would impose limitations on both the size and composition of boards of governors. Under the bill, the size of a board would be limited to between 13 and 25 members. Two-thirds of those members would have to be from outside the university community, with at least a quarter of the board coming from inside each university. In addition, the bill would mandate that equal numbers of men and women serve on each board. Members of McGill's Board of Governors voiced their opposition to the bill at a meeting on February 9, with member-at-large Eric Maldoff, a prominent Montreal lawyer and McGill alumnus, leading the charge against the bill. Maldoff called the legislation a serious threat and said Bill 107 represents "more than a slippery slope" in its implications for government interference in the way Quebec universities are run. In a long discussion of the issue, several governors agreed that McGill is fundamentally different than other universities in the province. "[We need to] measure ourselves against the international community, not Chicoutimi," Maldoff said, referring to the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi. The governors strongly criticized Courchesne during their discussion, with Board chair Robert Rabinovitch saying that the minister "can be and is quite vindictive." McGill Chancellor Richard Pound then proposed sending a letter signed by Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, Rabinovitch, and himself, emphasizing the serious nature of the legislation. "Frankly, I would use up one of our big [negotiating] chips on this," Pound said. "We should use more than one chip if we have to." Senate representative and department of pediatrics member Gary Pekeles then introduced a motion for Rabinovitch, Munroe-Blum, and Pound to send such a letter, which the Board unanimously approved, with support staff representative Allan Youster abstaining from the vote. While the reason Courchesne introduced the bill remains somewhat unclear, McGill Executive Head of Public Affairs Vaughan Dowie speculated that the bill stemmed from the Quebec government's desire to increase control of universities following the provincial bailout of the University of Quebec at Montreal's troubled finances. "This Bill is a response to the real estate problems that occurred at UQAM, but in reality those events had less to do with university governance and much more to do with project oversight and the sharing of information within that university," Dowie wrote in an email to the Tribune. Because McGill's Board of Governors is already composed of 25 members, the proposed bill would affect only the composition of the Board. Currently, 12 of the positions on the Board are reserved for members-at-large unaffiliated with the university. If passed, Bill 107 would raise that number to 16 or 17. Pound and Munroe-Blum currently sit on the Board, in addition to three representatives of the McGill Alumni Association and two representatives each from Senate, academic staff, and administrative and support staff. Post-Graduate Students' Society President John Ashley Burgoyne and Students' Society President Kay Turner sit on the Board as well. According to Dowie, the university has already made many of the changes that would be mandated under Bill 107. "McGill has reformed and modernized our governance model and instruments over the past few years and we did not require a law for that to have happened," Dowie wrote in an email to the Tribune. Representatives of the Ministry of Education, Recreation, and Sports did not return the Tribune's requests for comment. According to Turner, the Board is worried about the potential for future legislation further regulating the university. "The real problem that the Board has with [Bill 107] is what it potentially means-the spirit of the legislation," Turner said. SSMU took action on the legislation after the Board of Governors first discussed Bill 107 last September. Vice-President External Devin Alfaro introduced four motions resolving that "privately chartered universities [such as McGill] remain sovereign regarding the composition and functioning of the governing bodies" and calling on SSMU to oppose the "political control" of universities, which Council passed by a large margin on October 28. Alfaro's counterparts at the University of Sherbrooke and Laval University passed similar resolutions. "Our point of view is that while it's good to have external people who have expertise in running organizations on the Board of Governors, it's the people who work here, who study here, who teach here who have the most intimate knowledge of the needs, [and] the problems that are facing this institution," Alfaro said. In addition, Turner said that she and Burgoyne have had productive discussions about the bill. Burgoyne said the issue will be discussed at the PGSS Executive's next meeting. According to Turner, SSMU supports the governors' action against the bill. "SSMU is not in favour of these regulations, and I think that many of the governors spoke incredibly eloquently and they were all totally right in that the government doesn't have a place in telling us how to do the specifics of our governance," she said. "And I think that everyone loses when the government comes in and does that." © Copyright 2009 The McGill Tribune Source: SPPUS ( Syndicat des professeures et professeurs de l’Université de Sherbrooke)COMMUNIQUÉ Diffusion immédiate Loi Courchesne sur la gouvernance universitaire - Vive opposition de la part des professeures et professeurs de l’Université de Sherbrooke Trois associations de professeures et de professeurs de l’Université de Sherbrooke regroupant au total plus de 600 membres - l’AIPSA, l’APPRUS et le SPPUS - s’associent pour exprimer leur vive opposition à un projet de loi sur la gouvernance universitaire dont une première mouture, le projet de loi 107, a été présentée à l’Assemblée nationale l’automne dernier. Le projet de loi 107 est mort au feuilleton en raison de la tenue des élections de l’automne. Tout indique cependant que la ministre Courchesne entend en présenter un semblable à la reprise des travaux parlementaires en mars. Les professeures et professeurs regroupés au sein des trois associations s’opposent à ce projet de loi parce qu’il occulte le principal problème qui mine les universités, soit le sous-financement. Ils s’opposent à un projet de loi qui porte atteinte à l’autonomie nécessaire à l’épanouissement de l’université en tant qu’institution et en tant que service public. Enfin, ils dénoncent un projet de loi qui dévalorise le mode de gestion collégiale propre aux universités. La «gouvernance / réingénierie» ne règle pas le problème de sous-financement des universités. Confrontées à un manque criant de ressources, certaines administrations universitaires ont été contraintes de recourir à toutes sortes d’expédients pour tenter d’accroître leurs revenus. Elles se sont ainsi lancées dans des aventures immobilières qui se sont avérées désastreuses. Très souvent, ce sont des représentants de la communauté universitaire – que le projet de loi tient pour suspects - qui ont tiré la sonnette d’alarme. Le projet de loi entend attribuer les deux tiers des sièges du conseil d’administration aux représentants du secteur privé, qu’on dit dépourvus d’intérêts et d’attaches. Cela n’offre pas de meilleures garanties de clairvoyance et de succès. Peu au fait des rouages de l’institution, ces membres «indépendants» tombent trop souvent sous la coupe de membres de la haute direction universitaire. À titre de fiduciaire de fonds publics, les administrations universitaires doivent rendre compte de leur utilisation et faire preuve de la plus grande transparence. Plusieurs textes de loi leur imposent déjà de nombreuses obligations à cet égard. Il n’est pas nécessaire d’en rajouter. Il n’y pas lieu d’imposer aux universités un carcan de gouvernance qui s’appuie sur des fondements essentiellement idéologiques. Alors que les universités crient famine, le gouvernement ne doit pas leur servir de la «réingénierie» à moitié cuite et indigeste. L’université est un service public qui s’appuie sur une longue tradition d’autonomie et d’indépendance. Il revient en premier lieu aux membres de la communauté universitaire de déterminer les grandes orientations de l’institution et de préserver la liberté académique à l’encontre des pressions de la part de groupes et d’intérêts qui visent à détourner ses ressources et à les asservir. Le projet de loi menace cette nécessaire autonomie. Le projet de loi dévalorise le mode de gestion collégiale propre aux universités. Il impose une structure rigide et contraignante qui écarte les représentants de la communauté universitaire des lieux de pouvoir au sein de l’université. Il concentre entre les mains de quelques administrateurs de haut niveau les principaux leviers, sans les contrepoids nécessaires. Les professeures et professeurs de l’Université de Sherbrooke, par la voix de leurs associations respectives mettent en doute la sagesse et l’opportunité du projet de loi. Ils déplorent que le débat sur la gouvernance occulte le principal problème qui mine les universités, soit le sous-financement. Ils demandent au gouvernement de renoncer à présenter un projet de loi sur la gouvernance universitaire. Enfin, ils souhaitent que s’établisse un dialogue plus constructif entre les professeures et les professeurs d’université et le gouvernement. Ces trois associations tiendront une conférence de presse conjointe le vendredi 27 février 2009, à 10 heures, à l’auditorium de la Faculté d’éducation de l’Université de Sherbrooke (Local A2-101). Des représentantes de l’APBU (Association of Professors of Bishop’s University) participeront également à cet événement. Renseignements : Robert Tétrault, 1er vice-président du SPPUS (819) 821-8000, poste 62520
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