THE
AUFA PRESIDENT COMMUNICATES
2002-2003: Our Year of
Negotiations
Welcome
to 2002-2003: the AUFA’s “year of negotiations.” With the negotiation of a 1st
Collective Agreement for part time faculty just under
our belt, pre-negotiating committees are already busy preparing the groundwork
for negotiating the 11th Collective Agreement for ALL faculty:
librarians, instructors, full time and part time members of the AUFA. It promises to be a very busy year indeed.
Congratulations to the part time
faculty of the AUFA on achieving a 1st Collective Agreement! Your unanimous rejection of the BoG’s
last offer, followed up by a resounding 100% strike vote, sent a clear signal
to the Administration that you were determined to achieve a fair and equitable
1st Collective Agreement.
More importantly, it demonstrated your confidence in your Negotiating
team to bargain on your behalf. After months of bargaining, such a vote of
confidence breathed new life into your team, empowering its return to the
bargaining table with a renewed feeling of strength. Hats off to Jim, Heather,
Martin, Ann and Barb for doing such a tremendous job! We truly appreciate the
many long hours you put in on behalf of your part time colleagues. Thanks, too,
for all the work put in by Greg and Janice--and the many hectic days put in by
Jane! I hope everyone will join me in
thanking the Executive of the Acadia Student Union for their unanimous show of
support that really helped to close the deal!
Now it is time to start working hard on preparing for the negotiation of
our 11th Collective. Thanks
especially to the work of our Vice-President, Janice Best, the pre-negotiating
committees (Appointments & Working Conditions, Financial Benefits, Legal
& Technical) have been struck and our Negotiating Committee duly elected.
Preliminary reports from the pre-negotiating committees are expected at the
next general meeting on October 22, hopefully with some tentative dates for upcoming roundtables seeking
input from the membership. Your active
participation in the work of these committees will ensure that we have a broad
consensus on which to enter into negotiations.
I would
also like to thank CAUT for its continued support of the AUFA, most recently in
support of part time negotiations. We
are grateful for the attendance of CAUT President, Vic Catano,
and Executive Director, Jim Turk, at our first general meeting, followed up by
several days of support given by Vicky Smallman. In addition, we have been
greatly assisted by Neil Tudiver and Jerry Kovacs by
telephone. We plan to ask CAUT to hold workshops on Collective Bargaining, both
introductory, for the whole membership, and advanced, for those involved in
negotiations.
Part of
our initiative this year is to build a sense of community among our own
membership and the ASU. We have already seen the fruit of working
together when ASU lent such timely and effective
support to the part time negotiations. We invited the ASU
Executive to join the AUFA in hosting a social event to welcome new faculty to
Acadia. This event was held October 22
at Wheelock Lounge.
During the summer I also met with the association of AUFA retirees; we
agreed to meet again sometime this fall to discuss retirees’ input on the
upcoming negotiations, especially on pension and insurance benefits.
Finally,
on behalf of the general membership, I would like to thank all those who have
agreed to serve on the AUFA committees for this upcoming year--in particular
the members of the Executive. In our
“year of negotiations,” this will mean a great deal of work and commitment on
your part, for which we are all deeply indebted. Of course, we all know that
the Executive, and all those who serve on the AUFA committees, can only truly
fulfil their mandate with the energetic participation and support of a truly
active membership. That’s where you come in.
Vernon Provencal
President