YUFA
News
Bishop’s University Faculty Face Possible Lockout
by Louise Ripley, Communications Officer & CAUT Defense Fund Trustee for YUFA
23 Jul 07 - The Association of Professors of Bishop’s University in Lennoxville remains under a media blackout this morning as we wait to hear whether the faculty will be locked out, to join the support staff who have been on strike for three weeks now. The employer, at Bishop’s called The Corporation, threatened the lockout of the faculty in a letter received by Virginia Stroeher, President of the Union, literally while on the picket lines with the visiting CAUT Defense Fund Flying Picket on Thursday afternoon, 19 July. If the faculty are locked out without first having gone on strike, it will be a first in Canadian university union history, at a university that already is unique with staff and faculty (full and contract) served by the same union.
Last Thursday was our second CAUT Defense Fund solidarity visit to our colleagues at Bishop’s University. All three bargaining units are in negotiations. The non-academic staff unit is negotiating its first contract and has been in negotiations for two years; they went out on strike 28 June, when their employer threatened to remove some 20 positions, outsource programmes, and make drastic changes in their pension plan. The other two bargaining units have been in negotiations since May 2006, and have been in a strike position for several months.
Denise Nevo, Defense Fund Trustee from Mount St. Vincent in Halifax, and stalwart, long-time organizer of the Defense Fund visits, describes the visit in more detail:
“We all gathered at strike headquarters in the morning and at 10:30 am, strikers, flying and driving pickets marched together toward the first campus gate. A very large number of passing cars and trucks honked loudly, a good indication of the local support the association is receiving. The headquarters is located right next a set of railway tracks, and the best part was when a train arrived just as we were walking out of headquarters. The conductor stopped the train and loudly blew several times the horn and whistle, and waved at us. It gave everyone an incredible feeling of power.
In the early afternoon, the union received a letter from the employer,
an ultimatum, which informed them that a global offer to all three
bargaining units tabled on July 11th was “the university’s best and
final offer”, and that union members had until midnight Friday (20 July)
to accept it and reach a settlement. After that, all Bishop’s union
workers would be locked out as of Sunday midnight (22 July)… APBU is not
prepared to accept this final offer of July 11th. Among the contentious
issues are, of course, salaries. The university proposal would give
full-time and contract faculty and librarians no pay increase for the
full term of their contract (3 years). They would however receive a 2%
increase on March 1, 2009, if there are more than 2,300 full-time
students registered in the winter term of 2008. Last year, full-time
enrollment was 2,100 students, and enrollment is expected to be only
1,800 in September. Bishop’s highest ever enrollment was 2,250 students.
The university president, Robert Poupard, claims that the two sides are “very close to a settlement”, which does not seem to be the case, according to Ginny Stroeher, the union president, one of the most charismatic, energetic, dynamic, spirited, bubbly union presidents I ever met! “Instead of 153 people on the picket lines, come Monday we will have close to 300” said Ginny. Union leaders are spending the weekend preparing for the lock-out.”
YUFA stands in solidarity with our colleagues in APBU, sending our financial support and our emotional and moral support. We wish APBU well and anxiously await news of the outcome of the latest bargaining.