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Work Plan 2002-03

As required by YUFA By-law 9(b), the following is the Executive Committee's work plan for the period June 2002-May 2003.

Summary

All Officers

  • Bargaining preparation

President - Susan Dimock

VP Internal - Jay Rahn

  • Personnel Committee
  • Labour-Management and Bargaining committees with CUPE 1281
  • Stewards' Council
  • Recruiting
  • Clarification of Constitution
  • Reactivation of moribund content in Collective Agreement
  • Joint Sub-committee on Student E-Contact

VP External - Nick Lary

Chief Steward - John Bell

  • Chair, Grievance Sub-committee
  • Co-chair, Stewards Council
  • Recruit & organize departmental stewards
  • Complaints, grievances, & arbitrations

Chief Steward - Ellie Perkins

  • Complaints, grievances, & arbitrations
  • Joint Committee on the Administration of the Agreement (JCOAA)
  • Chair, Stewards Council
  • Co-chair, Grievance Sub-committee
  • Workload, double cohort issues

Communications Officer - Robert MacDermid

  • Message 1: Setting bargaining priorities
  • Message 2: Moving YUFA beyond whiteness
  • Message 3: Building community & participation in YUFA
  • Message 4: YUFA is accountable & timely
  • Message 5: Know your rights
  • Message 6: Welcoming new members

Equity Officer - Jody Nyasha Warner

Treasurer - Perry Sadorsky

  • Budget
  • Monitor financial position
  • Provide financial advice

Detailed work plans for YUFA officers

President - Susan Dimock

Beyond performing the regular tasks of the YUFA President, as specified in the Association's Constitution and By Laws, I will concentrate in the current year on the following projects.

1. Special Sub-committee of Senate Report on the State of the University

I will spend considerable time in the fall of 2002 completing YUFA's response to the recommendations of the Special Subcommittee of Senate on the State of the University. The Action Committee of Senate has referred three recommendations to YUFA and President Marsden. I repeat those recommendations here, and invite all YUFA members to communicate their views on them to me as soon as possible.

Recommendation 5 (Labour relations)

a. that the Action Committee request of both the Administration and YUFA that they give consideration to establishing a joint committee to explore, in advance of formal negotiations, issues that are likely to be central in the forthcoming bargaining process

d. that the Administration and the Unions at York consider a variety of ways to improve the climate of labour relations and collective bargaining including seeking external assistance in best practices and other issues.

Recommendation 6 (Labour relations)

a. that the Action Committee request of both the Administration and YUFA that they give consideration to devising a dispute resolution mechanism prior to the outset of negotiations that would be employed in the event that the collective bargaining process does not issue in a collective agreement

Recommendation 9 (With respect to service)

That the Action Committee propose to YUFA and the Administration

b. That the matter of service be on the agenda of the appropriate joint committee, working towards a contractual definition of what constitutes minimal service and what constitutes meritorious service that should be recognized in any system of merit pay.

2. Preparing for Bargaining

The Collective Agreement between YUFA and York University will expire in May 2003. Thus we will be in bargaining next spring. In preparation for that event, a sub-committee of the YUFA Executive - the Bargaining Priorities Subcommittee - has been struck. I will be working closely with the members of that committee, as will other members of the Executive, in order to ensure that YUFA has developed a well articulated set of priorities for the next round of bargaining, to be approved by the membership and communicated to the actual bargaining team. Such preparation will require wide consultation with members, as well as a careful review of the current contract and obtaining of legal and other relevant expert advice.

3. New Tenure and Promotion Procedures

I will continue to work with members of the Administration and Senate on issues related to the implementation of the new T&P procedures which we adopted last year.

4. Hiring

It is clear that there will be a massive increase in hiring over the coming years. This increase is attributable to the projected enrolment increases related to the double cohort, population increase and increasing utilization of universities within the population, as well as the retirement of large numbers of YUFA members. This provides an exciting opportunity for YUFA, but many challenges as well. There are a number of inter-related issues here. First, our hiring practices are governed by two important sets of rules: those set by HRDC, which gives absolute priority to Canadian applicants for permanent faculty and librarian positions (though not for CLA or part-time positions), and the affirmative action provisions of our Collective Agreement. The hiring process is an onerous one, and the number of faculty and librarians to be hired is daunting. I will be working with the Administration and the joint AA committee to ensure that all parties have a common understanding of what the various rules require, how they relate to one another, and what must be done within units to ensure that their hiring processes conform to the procedures. This work is crucial to ensure that collegial recommendations on short lists, and ultimately offers, can be approved and made in an efficient and timely manner. The hiring boom that we anticipate also raises potentially more contentious issues. While it is in everyone's interests at York to ensure that we hire the best people possible, and we all recognize that to do so we must have good hiring policies in place, YUFA is very concerned about the Administration's plans to meet at least the short-term enrollment pressures by hiring CLAs and part-time employees rather than tenure-tract/permanent YUFA members. I shall be working with many others to think through the implications of this plan, especially its implications for the workload of YUFA members.

5. Retired Faculty and Librarians

We face an unprecedented number of YUFA members who have recently retired or who will be retiring over the next few years. The needs of Associate members are diverse, touching on everything from the need to access information and communicate with one another, to have research support, to pension and benefits issues. I will be working with other members of the Executive and with ARF to develop procedures for better serving the needs of YUFA retirees.

VP Internal - Jay Rahn

Several of the tasks I will be carrying out are part of the VP Internal's job description. Among these are positions on YUFA committees that deal directly with YUFA's own CUPE 1281 staff. These include the YUFA/CUPE 1281 Personnel Committee, which considers questions that might arise from time to time between YUFA and its staff, and the YUFA/CUPE 1281 Labour-Management Committee, where YUFA's role is that of employer. Because YUFA's CUPE 1281 staff have sought their own renewal collective agreement with YUFA, there has also been a need this year for a Negotiating Committee in order for YUFA to bargain with its staff.

Other ex officio duties of the VP Internal include membership on YUFA's Executive and YUFA's Bargaining Priorities Committee. The BPC has been struck this year to prepare proposals for the upcoming round of negotiations between YUFA and its Employer, and like YUFA's Executive, will be meeting at two-week intervals during the next several months. In its earliest stages, I will be trying to ensure close interaction between the BPC and Bob MacDermid, YUFA's Communication Officer, so that the excellent tradition Kathy Bischoping established of compiling a comprehensive questionnaire for the membership early in the prelude to bargaining can be maintained as a basis for the forthcoming round of negotiations.

YUFA's new constitution enhances the venues through which YUFA members can communicate their concerns with officers and with each other. Key to this initiative is the Stewards Council, which will be meeting monthly. Beyond ex officio membership on the SC, I will be working with Chief Steward Ellie Perkins towards optimizing the flow of information and ideas between YUFA members and the various officers, committees, and subcommittees of the Association.

In all these regards, ensuring a full complement of members for YUFA's various groups will be one of my ongoing concerns. In this connection, one of my special projects this year will be to reactivate certain YUFA, York and Labour-management committees that have been non-operative or to which appointments have not yet been made. As well, I am concerned that work already accomplished in the past couple of years not lie dormant. In particular, I will be trying to maximize the effectiveness of information recently gathered concerning workload in general and electronic contact in particular. Also on the horizon are initiatives to improve, with President Susan Dimock, the connection between YUFA and the Association for Retired Faculty and Librarians, and to clarify the terms in which service by faculty and librarians is credited (e.g., for T&P). Finally, as I have already found, some of these projects will require a vigilant review of gains already made in the collective agreement and might even necessitate amending the new constitution.

VP External - Nick Lary

The York University Faculty Association faces a period of crisis in post-secondary education brought on by several years of federal and provincial cutbacks in funding and by the provincial government's elimination of Grade 13, which has led to the double cohort entering the university system this year and next year.

The Faculty Association enters this period of intensified uncertainty and crisis after undergoing a process of reorganization and constitutional renewal.

At the same time there have been signs of renewed activism and political consciousness among labour unions and other organizations, providing YUFA with opportunities for action and lobbying both outside and inside the university. YUFA has forged links with the National Union of CAUT (NUCAUT), the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), and the Toronto & York Region Labour Council.

1. I want to find how YUFA can most usefully work with these bodies and with the various teachers unions, along with our regular work with OCUFA & CAUT.

Within the University YUFA faces the challenge of an employer which, too often, acts as if it were merely the agent of government policies and as if its task were principally to ensure that increasing numbers of students were taught on the cheap, with fewer ongoing faculty members and more contract and part-time teachers, with increased workloads for all in a degraded environment for teaching, research and study.

2. I will also work with other unions and groups on campus, and in particular CUPE 3903 and the York Federation of Students (YFS), to protect our members, the university and to question the employer's policies.

Chief Steward - John Bell

As I indicated when I accepted nomination for this position, I will hold it until the end of June 2003. In the 2002-2003 period I shall be attending and chairing Grievance Committee meetings approximately twice a month, attending and reporting to Executive meetings (every week while classes are on and less frequently at other times), and attending and co-chairing monthly meetings of the Stewards Council. Ancillary duties include helping to prepare agendas for the Grievance Committee and Stewards Council.

This is the first year in a while that YUFA has had an activated Stewards Council, so part of my work will be trying to recruit and organize departmental stewards.

Much of a Chief Steward's position is reactive, dealing with grievances as they come in, via myself and other YUFA officers, or--most often--via the YUFA Staff. As well as the Grievance Committee, grievances involve me in twice-monthly meetings with the other Chief Steward, Ellie Perkins, and YUFA Staff Monica Mulvihill, and in meetings with Barry Miller from Human Resources, at least once a month, and usually more often. Ad hoc meetings and written communications with grievors, Deans, and the Union's Lawyers are also involved in grievances. Some grievances also involve Dispute Resolution Committees, the YUFA side of which is argued by a Chief Steward. I did 2 Dispute Resolution Committees (DRCs) in my position last year, and have done one more since the first of July. The Chief Steward position also involves consulting with and guiding the lawyer during Arbitrations and other legal proceedings. I did several of those last year, and expect several more this year.

One proactive aspect of being a Chief Steward, which I certainly shall try to fulfil, is informing bargaining preparation of contract issues that have become evident in administering the Collective Agreement.

Chief Steward - Ellie Perkins

As one of the two Chief Stewards, my responsibilities include working with the other Chief Steward, John Bell, and with YUFA staff members, especially Monica Mulvihill, to assist and help represent YUFA members in contract-related matters vis-à-vis the York University administration. This involves phone contacts and meetings with members and administration representatives, dispute resolution processes, informal contacts, and arbitration proceedings as well as background preparation and coordination with other YUFA officers, staff, and members. I intend to do my share of this work over the coming year.

I will also help to chair meetings of the Grievance Committee and the Stewards Council as needed, represent the Stewards at meetings of the Joint Committee on the Administration of the YUFA Collective Agreement (JCOAA) and the JCOAA caucus, and attend meetings of the Executive.

In the coming academic year, there are a number of important contract-related issues which demand attention. Those of particular interest and emphasis for me include the Employment Standards Act grievance and other avenues for seeking pay equity; YUFA's grievance concerning the Executive MBA program; and various workload-related questions, which are arising in connection with the double cohort.

I expect to work with the Contract Review Committee over the year, as well, to prepare for the next round of bargaining and to make suggestions for needed improvements to the collective agreement.

Communications Officer - Robert MacDermid

1. Message: YUFA is setting priorities for bargaining in 2003

  • Audience: Membership
  • Media: Questionnaire survey of members; website discussion of bargaining issues
  • Goal: A list of priorities for bargaining based on a survey of the membership
  • Time: Fall 2002

2. Message: Moving YUFA beyond whiteness

  • Audience: Membership
  • Media: Website
  • Goal: Keep equity issues prominent
  • Time: Fall 2002

3. Message: Building community and participation in YUFA

  • Audience: Membership
  • Media: a high profile public lecture; a regular luncheon meeting for members; a calling campaign to find members to fill out the Stewards Council
  • Goal: Events that bring YUFA members together
  • Time: Fall 2002

4. Message: YUFA is accountable and timely

  • Audience: Membership
  • Media: Website reports on committee meetings
  • Goal: Short regular and timely reports of committees
  • Time: Continuous

5. Message: Know your rights

  • Audience: Membership
  • Media: Website FAQs / Handbook; develop a CD-ROM the Contract, Handbook, FAQs and other information
  • Goal: Get as much information into members hands as possible in a way that they are likely to use. Review FAQs and make sure that they are current.
  • Time: Continuous

6. Message: Welcoming New Members

  • Audience: New Members
  • Media: Contact with YUFA; Social event that welcomes new members
  • Goal: Make sure that all new members speak with a YUFA member and learn about YUFA

Equity Officer - Jody Nyasha Warner

As the Equity officer I have a broad mandate to make York an inclusive and welcoming institution for all YUFA members. I work closely with YUFA staff, especially Monica Mulvihill, chair monthly Equity committee meetings, am a member of the YUFA Executive and sit on the Stewards Council. Below is a description equity activities on the horizon thus far for 2002/2003.

Equity and Bargaining

A major focus of the Equity committee this year will be to prepare relevant positions for the upcoming round of YUFA negotiations. To this end, the Equity committee will be working in conjunction with the Information officer to write questions for the Equity section of the Bargaining survey. The Equity committee will also try to appoint someone to act as an Equity liaison with the Bargaining Priorities sub-committee to ensure good communication. This year CAUT's Collective Bargaining conference (to be held the beginning of February) will focus on Bargaining for Equity and hopefully some YUFA members will be able to attend it.

Taskforce for Inclusivity and Diversity

The Taskforce took a hiatus over the summer and will spend the fall wrapping up our project. With the help of the Institute for Social Research we have held about 6 focus groups with faculty from various backgrounds. The final few will be held in October. We hired a GA over the summer to do a literature review on chilly climate in the academy. We plan on having a final report ready before the end of the year. We are also exploring the possibility of holding a few workshops around the university based on our findings.

Caucuses

Both the Race Equity caucus and the Queer caucus have meetings set for October. We have also put a call out to see if there are any faculty members interested in a First Nations caucus. Hopefully the caucuses will be able to provide input into equity issues to take to negotiations this year. Officially recognized caucus' can have a seat on the Stewards council so we will be looking into organizing this.

Curriculum Diversity Transformation Project

Last year the Equity committee wanted to do some work around curriculum diversity and the one small step made in this direction was in aiding the Centre for the Support of Teaching's efforts to include a diversity stream at their annual Course Design Institute. This year Deborah Barndt, who is a faculty associate at the CST and a member of the Equity committee, is spearheading a set of workshops on Curriculum Diversity. While the workshops are aimed primarily at FES faculty (since they are in the process of re-working their whole programme) they will be open to other interested members.

Bias in Teaching Evaluations

A collection of readings have been assembled that document different kinds of biases that can occur in Teaching Evaluations. The idea is that faculty can include readings that they may think are pertinent to their tenure files. This year we will need to think about how to let the York community know this resource is available to them. We may

also explore giving a workshop on this issue to the Senate T &P committee and/or to people who conduct Peer Teaching evaluations across the university.

Beyond Tolerance - Bent on Change II Conference

This upcoming conference on Queer issues in the Academy will include a session titled Affirmative Action: A Cross-Campus Check-up. It will basically be a conversation between representatives from the various unions of Ryerson, York, and University of Toronto who will provide brief accounts of the history, successes, and failures of affirmative action initiatives at their institutions, especially as they relate to LGBT members. The YUFA Equity committee will be helping to organize this session.

Treasurer - Perry Sadorsky

The Treasurer prepares YUFA's budget, monitors YUFA's financial position and provides advice regarding spending and investing matters. This year I will conduct the duties of the Treasurer.