YUFA
Executive
Executive Committee
Work Plan Progress Report
June-December 2001 (as of January 2002)
Chair - Penni Stewart
*Bargaining: Concluded in September.
*Constitutional Renewal: Amendments enacted December; transition under
way.
*Revising T&P Procedures: YUFA ratification in January; now before
Senate.
Vice Chair Organisation - Leslie Sanders
* Nominations: Postponed in Fall pending constitutional renewal; now
underway with new Vice Chair Susan Dimock.
* Merit Pay discussion: Postponed.
Vice Chair External - Lorna Erwin
* 25th Anniversary Academic Labour Conference: Cancelled.
* Local hearings on public education: To be held in March.
Information Officer - Kathy Bischoping
* Bargaining Support: Chaired subcommittee; produced 7 fact sheets and 4
communiqués in support of bargaining 2001.
* Members’ Handbook: Handbook of information about collective agreement
and YUFA well underway. Some contents have appeared as "FAQs" on
the website.
* Website: Website launched in September; development is ongoing;
promotions of news and information items appearing monthly.
* YFS Handbook and Excalibur advertising campaign: Ads have appeared in
YFS Handbook and 3 editions of Excalibur.
* Special edition of Active Voice on “Moving YUFA beyond Whiteness”:
On hold.
* Member Education and Awareness: Magnets sent out in August; new faculty
event held in November.
Chief Steward - Marilyn Silverman
* Pursuit of members’ grievances, complaints, mediation and
arbitrations. Since the end of August 2001, we have been dealing with
approximately 25 grievances at any one time: as one is resolved, another
comes up. This number does not include, of course, the various complaints
which colleagues make to the YUFA office and which are handled before the
“formal complaint stage” is reached. The “individual grievances”
now on line address such issues as course credit for cancelled courses;
tenure and promotion; the contents of personnel files; the procedures of
the York’s Women’s Centre; vacation pay; office space; long-term
disability entitlements. The “policy grievances” include decanal
involvements in certain hiring procedures; the full-time librarian
complement; course invigilation at Atkinson and also, office space; the
cut-backs in secretarial help; CLA workload (awaiting SRC decision) and
the current budget crisis and their implications for workload.
We are also awaiting several mediation reports from the Dispute Resolution
Committee (DRC) and we have several arbitrations in progress. The latter
include Special Renewable Contract (SRC) salary and workload, employment
standards and the manner of remediation payments made to YUFA personnel
during the CUPE strike.
* Building community: Two Contract and Grievance Committee (C&G)
Projects. (A) Members of C&G made contact with all new faculty members
at the beginning of the year and informed them about the role which YUFA
plays in the university and the resources available from YUFA. (B) The
stewards who make up C&G have discussed the problems of setting up a
viable stewards’ network which would link together all faculties,
schools and departments. This is a longstanding problem, the difficulties
of which have contributed to the new constitutional structure which will
have a Steward’s Council and allow for more direct participation of
stewards in the running of YUFA. I, as one of the Chief Stewards, am on
the Implementation Committee for the new constitution. Ultimately, though,
community cannot be legislated for people; it must be created by members.
Its success will depend on the willingness of YUFA members to come forward
and take part.
* Education in Grievance work for Chief Stewards and Stewards. We have
done some work in education (e.g. lengthy discussions of the workings of
the DRC), but most meeting time for C&G has been taken up with
reviewing grievances and making decisions about their disposition. John
Bell and Monica Mulvihill (YUFA staff person for C&G) will be
attending CAUT’s Grievance Conference in Ottawa in early February.
Equity Co-ordinator - Jody Warner
* Caucuses: As part of an initiative to increase YUFA’s inclusivity, the
YUFA Equity Committee has launched a Queer caucus. We also launched a
caucus for faculty of colour which has chosen to rename itself the Race
Equity Caucus and become an independent body working in association with
YUFA.
* Task Force on Inclusivity and Diversity: The Equity Coordinator sits on
this task force as the YUFA representative along with Gill Teiman
(President’s Advisor on Human Rights and Equity) and Barbara Dodge
(Administrations representative). The taskforce has a budget of $15,000
and was mandated in the new collective agreement. Taskforce members have
met several times and are working on a plan to examine the issue of chilly
climate at York for faculty who are women and/or visible minorities and/or
gay/lesbian/bi/trans and/or who have disabilities. The taskforce members
are working with the Institute for Social Research on this project.
* Fair Employment Week: The Equity committee had been hoping to work in
conjunction with CUPE to plan Fair Employment Week activities to raise
awareness of working conditions and other issues affecting contract
faculty at York. Unfortunately this goal was not realized and this
initiative was dropped.
* Diversity and the Curriculum: The Equity committee is working in
association with the Centre for the Support of Teaching (CST) to plan a
workshop or seminar on designing inclusive curricula. Members working on
this project will attend the Teaching and Learning for Diversity in Higher
Education conference being held January 26th, 2002 at the University of
Toronto to gather information and insight. It is likely the event will
occur as part of the CST’s annual Course (Re)Design Institute in the
spring of 2002.