A new bargaining team has been elected and named to prepare for negotiations in 2012. Four members were elected at a Unit 3 membership meeting (November 16, 2011). A fifth member was elected by Stewards Council (December 8, 2011), the Chair of the Local is automatically a member and one other member of the Executive Committee was appointed to serve on the team.
The team is as follows: Jack Arn, Elected Member (Social Sciences, UTSC) Mima Staikova, Elected Member (Sciences, STG) Brian McDonough, Elected Member (Music, STG) Ronda Ward, Elected Member (Historical Studies, UTM) Judy Pocock, Stewards Council Elected Member (Humanities, UTSC) Leslie Jermyn, Vice-Chair Unit 3, Executive Appointee (Anthropology, STG) Wayne Dealy, Chair (Unit 1 Political Science, STG) We’ll be working on a member survey for the new year. If you have any questions or comments for the bargaining team, please email . ___________________________________________________________
Below, you will find important information about the state of bargaining for Unit 1 (TAs, Course Instructors), what is at stake, and what you can expect in the event of a strike or lockout in February.
1. Status of Negotiations:
Unit 1 has been in bargaining since their contract expired April 30, 2011. Since January, they have worked with a Conciliator appointed by the Ontario Labour Board to try to reach an agreement with the Employer. That process has stalled and there remain key issues that are unresolved. All parties agree that there is nothing further to be gained at this stage. On Monday January 30th, members of the unit decided to set a strike date for February 24th. The bargaining team remains available to negotiate throughout this period so that while a strike is now possible, it is not yet imminent. You can find updates on the process at our website: http://cupe3902.org/u1-bargaining/.
2. What is at Stake:
Negotiations have stalled over 3 key issues:
Class Size: As we know very well, part of the way the University has cut costs has been to reduce the number of tutorials and to raise the enrolment of those that remain. This undermines good quality education and makes the work of TAs, many of whom address 50 or more students in a tutorial or lab, both more difficult and less satisfying. Unit 1 is seeking appropriate enrolment limits on tutorials and labs which would benefit them, our students, and us as instructors trying to design pedagogically sound learning environments.
Research Funding: As you may know, graduate students are guaranteed funding ($15,000) and tuition costs for the first 4 or 5 years of their doctoral programs. What you may not know is that they are expected to work for up to 210 hours as TAs ($8820) and can be forced to work for an unlimited further number of hours as Research Assistants to earn their funding. As they find themselves working longer and longer hours to earn the money meant to support their research, completion times lengthen. Unit 1 is seeking to limit the amount of the funding package that they can be forced to work for.
Upper Year Students: When the funding runs out, upper-year doctoral students face the prospect of paying full tuition without any guarantees of work at the University. Their work guarantee of 3 subsequent appointments after their initial TAship usually expires alongside or before the funding guarantee. Unit 1 is asking for an extension of the work guarantee to enable upper-year students to make ends meet. In addition, until last year a Doctoral Completion Grant existed for all unfunded upper-year students. For most, it was the only source of support. That grant was eliminated. Unit 1 is seeking tuition grants for its unfunded members in years 5 and 6 of the PhD.
3. What to do in the case of a strike:
Background: During the last round of Unit 3 negotiations (2009) and Unit 1 negotiations (2009), the Employer gave us a guarantee that members of one unit would not be asked to do the work of another unit in the case of a strike. We will be seeking a similar guarantee should Unit 1 go on strike February 24th. In previous strikes, the University has remained open for the duration.
Context: The President of the Faculty Association, George Luste, has publicly advised the Provost that regular faculty members cannot be asked to do struck work and is advising his members to refuse to comply should they be asked to take over TA or Course Instructor work.
Contract: We have academic freedom protection that guarantees our right to determine the appropriate methods of student assessment for our courses meaning that you cannot be forced to alter methods of evaluation at this stage of your course.
In advance of a strike, we do not know what contingencies the Employer will put in place but we urge you to communicate with us if you are asked to do anything you feel violates your rights as the course instructor, reasonable conditions or hours of work, or your choice to support our Unit 1 colleagues.
Unit 3 will soon be negotiating a new contract and may well look to the support of Unit 1 during this process. For this and the reasons outlined above, we urge you to support your TA and Course Instructor colleagues in whatever way you can. Please get in touch if you have questions or concerns about this issue.