THE
AUFA PRESIDENT COMMUNICATES
We have had a very busy October and November in the Association.
Preparations for negotiations are well in hand and we are on track for being ready in February. By the time you read this, we will have concluded our Town Hall Meetings with the three Standing Committees and they will be hard at work turning the output of those discussions into contract language. We hope to get that out to the membership by late January for discussion and final approval at the February General Meeting.
As part of this process, we have had three very informative speakers come to campus: Doug Lorimer from Wilfred Laurier who spoke to us on issues related to Renewal, Tenure and Promotion, Chris Ferns from Mount Saint Vincent discussing financial benefits, and Brenda Austin-Smith from the University of Manitoba to discuss issues of equity as they relate to bargaining. I personally found the sessions to be very informative and getting some perspective from the national scene was quite illuminating.
Our Executive and our Negotiating Team members has been very involved in this process. Each of the three Standing Committees has had a member of the Executive and the Negotiating Team sitting on them to ensure that both these groups were well-informed of the full range of discussion that took place. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend many of these meetings and it was a great pleasure to take part in the discussion.
We were very pleased to come to an informal resolution with the employer to an issue that we had filed for arbitration. The resolution was acceptable to all parties and we were very pleased to be able to work together with the employer to reach this resolution.
We have had interesting discussions with the employer with regards to complement. Article 20 of the Collective Agreement specifies that there be a minimum complement of 214. Early in the Fall, the University President announced that attrition through retirement by faculty formed part of the plan to deal with the $3M budget cuts mandated by the Board. We initiated discussions to determine if such cuts might bring us below the minimum complement. We made significant progress in these discussions and had reached a verbal agreement that was very encouraging. However, when we requested the list of employees which formed the basis of the agreement, the employer refused to provide it. We will continue to work on this important issue.
In mid-November we got disturbing news from the SEIU which represents the food services workers at Acadia who have been laid off effective December 21 and do not know, at the time of this writing, whether they will be rehired by Chartwell’s. The membership unanimously passed a motion at the November General Meeting instructing the Executive to begin a solidarity movement with the former Sodexho workers. We have met with Mr. Tony Tracy of the SEIU and will be assisting them in whatever way we can.
During the CAUT Parliament Hill Lobby, I was able to bring to the attention of Mr. Brison and Mr. Stoffer the plight of these workers. Mr. Stoffer was very sympathetic to their cause and urged me to get the SEIU representatives to get in touch with him to see how he could assist them.
In closing, I would like to wish all of you a happy and safe holiday season and extend to you best wishes for the New Year on behalf of AUFA.
Peter Williams