YUFA
External
St. Thomas University Job Action
by Louise Ripley, Communications Officer & CAUT Defense Fund Trustee for YUFA
14 Feb 08 - On 2 February, the Faculty Association of the University of St. Thomas and the Board of Governors agreed to send remaining issues to binding arbitration, thus ending the 38-day lock-out/strike. The CAUT Defense Fund Flying Picket Team had dearly hoped that there might be good news announced at the party on the Friday night of our record-setting fifth visit. It was not to be, but we still had a great time celebrating the end of another week on the picket lines with FAUST - the indefatigable faculty union. At that party, they screened a great video done by one of their creative union members, titled "Fear of Tables." Centering on the fact that it had taken so very long for the Employer to come back to the table, the video showed a series of clips of tables, each accompanied by shots of famous scary pictures (e.g., Munch's "The Scream") and a famous sound clip of a scream (e.g., Psycho). It was hilarious. One of the things we discover when on strike is the incredible creativity of so many of our members.
Finally at 7:40 p.m. on Saturday came the good news that both sides had agreed to put outstanding issues to binding arbitration and end the strike. See FAUST's Website for the details.
All strikes are important, but this one was particularly so. A university faculty's very right to collective bargaining was challenged, and as we say so often when we all gather together from across the country to support whichever one of us is out on strike or locked-out, what happens to one of us affects what happens to us all; what one employer can do to one of us all other employers can consider doing to us all. And so we continue to gather together from across the country when any one of us is threatened, to remind each other that in union we stand together, that, as my dead-labour-union-organizer-father used to say, "You are never alone on a picket line." Well done, St. Thomas!
Click here for more details on the CAUT Defense Fund Visits to St. Thomas University.
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28 Jan 08 - On 27 December 2007, the Board of Governors of St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick made history, pre-emptively locking out its faculty during negotiations, before a strike vote had even been taken. Even more amazing was the fact that this was done by a Catholic University during the Christmas holidays, and when many faculty were away and unable to get to their offices to retrieve personal belongings.
Word of such abuse of academic collegiality spreads fast and when Larry Hale, President of the CAUT Defense Fund called for a Flying Picket to come show support for St. Thomas, although the visit was planned for the Friday after New Year's when many were still digesting holiday dinners quietly contemplating a return to our own classes, Larry was overwhelmed to find all ten spots in the Flying Picket formation filled the day after he put out the call. We assembled in Fredericton on Friday 4 January.
For Driving Pickets there is no limit on numbers, and they came from all over the East Coast, most notably twenty of them from Acadia University, who had just recently settled their own strike against a recalcitrant Employer who was brought to heel partly by the show of support by faculty from across the country, a reminder that no faculty/librarian ever stands alone on a picket line in Canada as long as CAUT Defense Fund members have breath in their lungs, feet in warm boots, and the $20 million in the fund that sustains us all both on strike/lock-out and in support of our brothers and sisters who are out on the lines.
We were privileged this time to be invited to stay with the members of the Faculty Association of St. Thomas University (FAUST) during their first meeting together since the lockout. There we heard the emotionally moving address by Suzanne Dudziak, President of FAUST, as she brought everyone up to date on what had been happening, and introduced all the visitors. We joined a standing ovation for the Negotiating Team, headed by Suzanne Prior. This team has been through almost a year of The Negotiations from Hell. They have been yelled at, taunted, subjected to profanity and sarcasm, and just generally treated as no one should ever be, particularly not colleagues at a bargaining table, colleagues with whom, when it is all over, the Employer will have to sit again at tables of shared committees, at Senate, at meetings dealing with students and food and conferences and convocations and parking, and at future Union negotiations.
The issues are pretty much the same as we are seeing across the country: salary and workload and in the Maritimes, for smaller Universities like St. Thomas and Acadia who are at the bottom of the pay scales salary is a particular issue. Also important at this bargaining table is the plight of contract/part-time faculty who do not even have the basic amenities like office space and health plans. There are also strange issues peculiar to St. Thomas. Their Board apparently meets and functions in complete secrecy, like some ancient Star Chamber. No one can obtain minutes, and senior staff are required to sign confidentiality agreements. The main thrust of the Board's negotiations appears to be control; they seem to think they "know what is best" for the faculty and seem determined to force it upon them.
We also heard from Jim Turk, Executive Director of CAUT; Peter Simpson, Assistant Executive Director of CAUT, serving as a technical advisor to the FAUST Negotiating Team; and Greg Allain, Professor at Université de Moncton and current president of CAUT). More and more, I begin to see a Strike and even a Lock-out as Jim Turk describes them, as indeed the 1997 Strike was at York University, as a chance to find camaraderie and collegiality that you may never have known on your campus before, a possibility to get to know fellow faculty you have never had the time to get to know, an opportunity to build a stronger Union when it's all over and you're back at work. Because, and this is perhaps the best message that the Defense Fund always brings, with our war stories and our messages of cheer and bravado and solidarity: every Strike and Lock-out does end.
After a quick lunch, we
processed... no, wait, we did not process, we were asked not to process
by good and decent University of New Brunswick with whom St. Thomas
University shares a campus which makes picketing ever so difficult, and
UNB graciously carved out some space for St. Thomas to picket, but asked
that we not march across UNB campus space, and we understood, so we
not-processed to a place in front of St. Thomas University's main
building where we received picket signs, carried there by car, and
gathered together for the rally at which we did the traditional
presentation of the CAUT Defense Fund's $1,000,000 cheque, meant, more
than anything, to remind the Employer that no Union will have to go back
in early for lack of funds.
The Raging Grannies joined us at the Rally! A few years ago I reviewed a book about the Raging Grannies, and I've known about them for ages, but I've never seen them live. They were spectacular! And they added so much pizzazz to our already joyous and rambunctious gathering as we stamped our feet and waved our hands as much in an effort to keep warm in -25C weather as to express our exuberance at being together to help St. Thomas show their Employer how many of us from across Canada were so horrified at their unconscionable tactics.
We then brought our greetings and our financial support, from universities across the country, and I am proud to note that the practice that YUFA started at Bishop's University this summer, of sending a sum of money immediately with a promise of additional money at regular intervals as the strike continues has spread now to a number of other universities. It is in our support of each other that we are strongest in our solidarity. It is not much money for a Union not on strike and it makes a world of difference both monetarily and in moral support to our colleagues facing the difficulties of a strike or lock-out.
After a rousing and very moving presentation, there being a strong emotional element to standing in minus 25 degree weather hearing your fellow universities and their geographical locations from furthest east to furthest west called out, one after the other, with Trustees and Flying/Driving Pickets stepping forward to pick up the megaphone to speak heart-felt words of support, we loaded our signs into snow-worthy vehicles and walked further up the hill, as our signs rode in quiet and invisible solitude. UNB, please make no sarcasm of these comments; we all were deeply impressed with the efforts you made to make a space for your locked-out colleagues, not the least of which was opening your lecture hall for their union meeting, not the least of which was having the walks shoveled and salted early that morning for our picketing, not the least of which was your magnificent financial contribution at the rally. Carrying our picket signs quietly between picketing posts was the very least we could do to repay you.
We spent part of the afternoon with the picketers on the hills (YUFA colleagues take note - at least our picket circles were all on one level!), and then returned to Strike Headquarters for a press conference. We had heard the good news, and it was passed on in the press conference, that the two sides were back at the table.
I was amazed at the organization and co-ordination at Strike Headquarters as they packed insulated bags to deliver to each shift with warm drinks and varieties of warm and healthy foods and snacks. A separate play area for children, bright rows of windows letting in cheerful light, the place looked quite like home.
Later Friday evening, we were invited to a classic Maritime Kitchen Party, held in the local Elks Lodge. Food, all home-made, was delicious, music was delightful, spirits were up and everything was going great, until Chief Negotiator Suzanne Prior addressed us with stunning news. We had been told that the Employer, who originally had said that "there would be no negotiations outside the parameters of their last offer," had stated on their website that they were willing to negotiate at any time without any conditions. They never notified the Union of this, but FAUST read it on the Employer's website and contacted the Conciliator, who arranged for the two sides to meet. When the two sides did meet, however, it turned out that the Employer only wanted to meet in order to talk about the offer it had already tabled and how fair it was (an offer which left St. Thomas still near the bottom of the pay scale nationally and provincially and at the top of the workload pile), and to tell the Union's Negotiating Team that they would have to accept the offer by midnight Sunday or the Employer would subject it to a forced vote of the membership.
This is allowed; the Employer did it to YUFA in 1997, unsuccessfully. It's usually a pretty dumb thing for an Employer to do, because a membership almost always supports its Negotiating Team. But their Employer will find that out in the vote. Suzanne spoke of feeling physically and psychologically beaten and bruised; of how abusive the Employer's Team had been at the table, how insulting, how arrogant.
Suzanne Prior then told the assembled and stunned-silent Union and Family crowd at the Kitchen Party that the Employer, in bringing their last offer directly to the members, would, of course, try to sweeten the deal. They were offering back pay for all but two days, and less the $77 per day from CAUT Defense Fund... oh, and... she added:
"THEY EXPECT THE UNION TO PAY
HALF THE COSTS OF CHANGING THE LOCKS."
Sometimes you just have to wonder where some University Administrators check their brains when they become University Administrators. The whole room, at that point, erupted in a combination of gasps of disbelief and whoops of laughter! It was for me the most joyous moment of the entire visit. I know Suzanne Prior and her Team felt beaten up and battered, but this bit of deep black humour surely ought to make up for some of what they suffered over the last few days, weeks, months.
I had no doubt that St. Thomas faculty would have voted that Employer's offer down without the mention of expecting the Union to pay for half the cost of changing the locks, but I am going on record here on Sunday night before the Strike Vote, before the Vote on the Employer's Proposal as saying both these votes will now be in favour of the Union's position. Word spread quickly at the Kitchen Party too that the LOCK would probably soon become St. Thomas' equivalent to Moncton's Mittens in their Strike of March 2000.
In Solidarity,
Louise Ripley
YUFA Trustee
CAUT Defense Fund
6 January 2008
Letter from the York University Faculty Association
Mr. Thomas McBrearty, Chair,
Board of Governors
Dear Mr. McBrearty:
It is with a profound sense of disappointment and incredulity that we, as members of the Executive of the York University Faculty Association, submit this unequivocal letter of protest condemning the pre-emptive lock out of your academic staff. We urge you to rethink immediately your position adn to have the Employer's negotiators return to the bargaining table. We join the CAUT in pledging assistance to our colleagues at St. Thomas University in order to attain a fair settlement. Clearly, this pre-emptive lock out is a pernicious course of action that expresses a commitment to both bad faith bargaining and a blatant disregard to its detrimental impact on the University Staff, Students, and Faculty.
(signed)
The Executive of the York University Faculty Association (YUFA)
L. Visano, Vice President External, York University Faculty Association
(YUFA)
cc: Michael Higgins, President, St. Thomas University