THE AUFA PRESIDENT COMMUNICATES
As always, it was a busy summer for the AUFA Executive. For several weeks, we wrestled with some thorny language in Article 11 of the 12th Collective Agreement regarding the precedence list for part-time faculty. A Memorandum of Agreement was released in August that clarifies the conditions under which a part-time faculty member is placed on or removed from the precedence list and the manner in which the precedence list is to be used when making hiring decisions.
We participated in the new faculty orientation program organized by Human Resources on August 29. We met all but one or two of the new faculty in attendance at the morning meet & greet, and most of these joined the Association on the spot. Thanks to Leo Elshof (AUFA Secretary and Sheepdog) and to our wonderful Union Officer Jane Longley for setting up and staffing the AUFA table. We also participated, as we always do, in the session of brief presentations later in the morning, but I believe that this was the first time that AUFA and HR have ever collaborated to give a joint presentation at this venue. This is a testament to the great improvement in the relationship between AUFA and HR since the change in leadership at Bancroft House. We also organized an hour-long new faculty orientation session of our own on September 18, which was well attended by new faculty and by our shop stewards. Many thanks to Andrew Biro and Vernon Provencal for their invaluable help in organizing and presenting this session.
Another summer project for the Executive was the creation of an AUFA blog as an additional, optional means of communication with our members. There are many news items that are likely of interest to our members but that do not necessarily warrant an e-mail to the entire membership. The blog allows us to share such items with anyone who chooses to view them, while allowing us to reserve our e-mail distribution list for high-priority messages to the membership only. The blog is at http://acadiaufa.wordpress.com and we invite you to take a look and subscribe to the RSS feed.
The Association Grievance Committee would like to remind members that the AGC is the first place to turn if you become aware of a situation that might be in contradiction with the terms of the Collective Agreement. Going to the AGC does not mean that there is going to be a grievance; it does not even mean that there is necessarily going to be any grief! It is quite possible to unwittingly violate the Collective Agreement out of perfectly good intentions, and many—we hope most—situations can be resolved amicably (if not averted entirely) if the AGC is notified as soon as possible. For an explanation of the function and procedures of the AGC, please see John Eustace's article “Introducing the Association Grievance Committee” in the February 2007 issue of the Communicator.
By November 30, 2008, the administration is required to provide AUFA with a report on complement as defined in Article 20.02, which states that the minimum tenure-stream position complement shall be 182, and that the complement number shall be the average of the counts on November 30 and March 31 in the current and previous academic year. The tenure-stream complement number fell far below 182 during the former university President's term: the March 31, 2008 number was only 172. Obviously, the November 30, 2008 number would have to be 192 to achieve the required average of 182; equally obviously, the Board is not going to commit to an additional 10 tenure-stream positions. So there is no doubt that on November 30, there is going to be a violation of the Collective Agreement.
Because the 12th Collective Agreement was not signed until November 2007, and because any new tenure-stream appointments would normally begin in July 2008, there is no way that the March 31, 2008 complement number could have been adequate, even if the Board had made a hundred tenure-stream hires. It therefore seems unreasonable for AUFA to insist on the letter of the contract when in spirit, and in practicality, what we want to ensure is that the November 30, 2008 count and all subsequent counts are at least 182.
To end on a positive note: our colleagues in SEIU achieved a new collective agreement after five days of amicable negotiations. Please see SEIU President Elke Willmann's article in this issue of the Communicator for details. One of the things I would like to achieve as President of AUFA in this non-bargaining year is a closer relationship with SEIU so that we can share information and work together on common goals, so I was delighted to see the support that faculty members showed SEIU during their negotiations.
I wish you all a productive and pleasant fall term, and I look forward to working with and for you during this academic year.
Erin Patterson