News

The executive board met twice this month. Here’s a brief report on what your union has been doing for you this month.

Collective Bargaining

A Collective Agreement is a contract between your union and your employer that governs our work. It determines issues such as wages, paid sick leave and vacation pay, benefits, and working conditions. Our five bargaining units are actively engaged in a continuous cycle of negotiation with our employers to secure the best deals for our members:

• Dalhousie TAs and Part-Time Faculty are in the process of consulting with members to finalize their proposals.

• MSVU Part-Time Faculty have requested dates to negotiate with the Employer

• NSCAD Instructors will present their financial proposals at the next bargaining meeting on 30 January.

• SMU Part-Time Faculty started bargaining at the end of the Fall. They have exchanged bargaining proposals with the Employer. They have five bargaining dates scheduled for February.

• SMU TAs met with the Employer five times this month using a bargaining procedure that is open and transparent. You can find regular updates from the bargaining committee here.

• Keep up to date with collective bargaining for your unit under the ‘Bargaining’ tab of our website.

Grievances

The union stands up for members’ labour rights as articulated in the Collective Agreement and under the law. If an employer acts in a way that violates your rights, the Vice President of your unit can address the issue by filing a grievance. This month, CUPE 3912 stood up for members by:

• Standing up to an administration for hiring Instructors outside the Collective Agreement and hiring TAs to do Part-Time Faculty member’s work

• Filing a grievance for a Part-Time Faculty member who we believe was discriminated against on the basis of disability through refusal of accommodation

Trustees Audit Report

Our finances are in order! Audits from 2019-2023 have been accepted by CUPE National.

Addressing Risk from Teaching Evaluations at MSVU

At MSVU, a Part-Time Faculty member who receives two unsatisfactory evaluations in two of four consecutive terms can be removed from the precedence list. Without precedence, an Instructor will likely lose their job. Unfortunately, teaching evaluations aren’t based on merit alone: they can reflect department chair bias, use of academic freedom, and student complaints that may be unfounded. The union is ready to help Instructors understand and appropriately respond to unsatisfactory evaluations.

Fighting for Senate Representation for Part-Time Instructors at SMU

Part-Time Faculty are currently ineligible to vote and serve on Senate at SMU; despite teaching a third of the University’s courses, they have no say in educational policy. This ineligibility is because the Senate bylaws do not recognize Part-Time Faculty as academic staff—despite the Saint Mary’s University Act saying otherwise. Part-Time Faculty teach a third of the University’s courses and should have a say in educational policy, especially as the University faces budgetary challenges that are leading to program changes. You can help by signing this petition to advocate for the Senate by-laws to be amended to include Part-Time Faculty.

Your union needs your engagement! To get involved, please reach out here.

There is a hybrid general membership meeting on Wednesday November 27, 2024, at 7 p.m.

The proposed agenda is below. This meeting will include the Treasurer’s Report, and approving a proposed budget for next year.

To review the proposed budget and other reports, see the link sent to your emails.

In-Person:
Clari Room
Atrium 340
Saint Mary’s University

Online:
The zoom link was sent to your email.

Proposed Agenda

1. Territorial acknowledgement
2. Roll call of Officers
3. Reading of Equality Statement
4. Voting on new members and initiation
5. Reading and approval of minutes of previous meeting
6. Matters arising
7. Treasurer’s report and approving expenditures
   • Financial Report
   • Proposed budget
8. Correspondence
9. Executive Board report
10. Reports of committees and delegates
11. Nomination, elections, or oath of office
    • Elections for Mobilization Committee. If you are interested in being nominated for this committee, please contact, David Banoub, our outreach coordinator.
12. Unfinished business
13. New business
14. Good of the Union
15. Adjournment

All members are welcome.

The CUPE 3912 by-laws committee is inviting you to participate in our union’s democracy and power structure once again.

On October 30th from 17h30 to 19h30 (5:30 PM to 7:30 PM), there will be a virtual meeting to discuss and vote on proposed by-law changes. This time around, the meeting will focus on the following sections in this order:

• Out-of-pocket expenses
• The duties of the secretary treasurer
• Appendix D (except for the honorarium for the membership officer)

The proposed changes can be accessed at the following link.

The proposals for review include Section 14 (out-of-pocket expense), Section 9 (Secretary-Treasurer) and Appendix D.

The Committee would also like to thank the members who attended the last meeting and contributed to the discussion. Additional thanks to those who contributed written feedback before and after the meeting.

To streamline the process on the 30th, we encourage sending written feedback to Aiden in advance so language can be adapted and agenda time can be allocated.

Please also bring at least one colleague to the meeting. By-law discussion can be dry, but it is essential to the functioning of a Union and fair, powerful representation for all. We need your support!

The link to the meeting will be sent closer to the date by email.

CUPE 3912 SMU supports the work of the SMU Black Inclusion Strategy Working Group and affirms the group’s report, Understanding the Challenges of the Black Community at Saint Mary’s University. We note the committed contributions of our SMUFU colleagues, Dr. Rachel Zellars and Dr. Harvi Millar, who acted as core members of the steering committee.

The report is available in full here.

After two years of tireless consultation, data collection, and dedicated engagement with Black students, constituencies, faculty, and staff, the report’s findings confirm an institutional pattern of structural anti-Black racism, ongoing discrimination of Black communities and workers on campus, and clear evidence that Saint Mary’s University perpetuates and normalizes a system of white supremacy.

To diminish these findings or equivocate about their validity and scope would be an exercise in disavowal. We believe that any effort to minimize the report’s findings would further confirm the report’s findings regarding the reality of Black experiences at SMU.

Given the findings in the report identify a consistent and continued lack of resources and supports for Black students and faculty/staff, and given the findings indicate a wider institutional indifference or unwillingness from SMU to address what are embedded structural forces and issues, we call on Saint Mary’s University to respond to these findings and begin immediately to address and implement the recommendations in the report.

The report’s first finding is clear: “Black students, faculty, and staff reported, as a norm, having been subjected to racist comments and behaviors on the SMU campus.” This is unacceptable, intolerable, and fundamentally unjust. Our colleagues, co-workers, and community members should not be harmed or traumatized while undertaking their academic, scholarly, or professional work at the university. Changing this situation is a collective responsibility for everyone at SMU, and it is a fundamental imperative for those who enjoy the benefits and dividends of institutional power and privilege at SMU.

As academic workers and university employees, we acknowledge that we are implicated in the reproduction of harmful and unjust effects of all kinds. The report is another opportunity to acknowledge the always-already political context of university environments and spaces. As such, we also understand the substantial role we can play and the work we must undertake in creating a university otherwise that is premised on really-existing inclusion, equality, trust, and unity in common across our many experiences, interests, and needs.”

CUPE 3912 is teaming up with the Association of Nova Scotia University Teachers (ANSUT) and Dalhousie Faculty Association (DFA) to run a social media campaign during Fair Employment Week.

 Every fall, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) conducts the Make It Fair campaignhttp://makeitfair.caut.ca to raise awareness of precarious employment at universities across Canada. 

From October 21-25, CUPE 3912, ANSUT and DFA would like to highlight on X, Instagram and Facebook the contributions made by our part-time faculty/ICA members. The social media template below is an example of how the graphic would look; the design will also include the CUPE 3912 logo and may have additional changes, but this is the general idea. The post accompanying these ads on social media will contain stats about contract workers, but the idea is to show the value part-time faculty bring, even as they face precarious working conditions.

 If you would like to participate, please send to Erica (VP SMU PT Faculty) the following things:

• Photo (head and shoulders, or an action shot, whichever you prefer)
• Current position, department and university 
• Years you have worked at DAL/MSVU/NSCAD/SMU 
• And something you want us to highlight, such as your research interests, committee or union involvement, special project – a few things you do in addition to your teaching. (If you have a website people can visit for more info, please include that as well.)

To participate in this campaign, please send the above information by Friday, October 18.

Did you receive an award recently? Finished a Master’s or PhD degree? Did you publish a scholarly or creative article or book?  

If there’s any recent academic or professional accomplishment you are proud of, send an email to Erica (VP-SMU PT Faculty) to let her know about it so we can recognize your hard work at a special informal event on October 23 from 4 to 6 PM at SMU (CLARI Room – AT 340) where we will celebrate professional or academic accomplishments of TAs and PT Faculty in 2024. To attend online, also send an email to Erica to RSVP and receive a Zoom link. There will be refreshments, union trivia, and prizes. Everyone is welcome to attend!

You are invited to participate in the following activities taking place during Fair Employment Week:

• Social media campaign organized by CUPE 3912 together with the Association of Nova Scotia University Teachers (ANSUT) and Dalhousie Faculty Association (DFA) highlighting on X, Instagram and Facebook the contributions made by our part-time faculty/ICA members, will run from October 21 to 25.

• An online panel on Decent Work Across Borders organized by CAUT. Hear about wins for contract academic staff in Canada, the US and the UK. Monday October 21, 2024 from 12 to 1:30 PM Atlantic Time.

• Inaugural online meeting of a grass-roots organization of per-course instructors from all post-secondary academic institutions in Atlantic Canada CAFAC (Contract Academic Faculty of Atlantic Canada) hosted by Karen Harper (CAUT CAS Committee member.) October 22, 2024 at 5 PM.

• Celebrating CUPE 3912 members’ accomplishments organized by Samantha Williams (VP SMU TAs), Erica Fischer (VP SMU PT Faculty), Karen Harper (CAUT CAS Committee member), and Rine Vieth (SMU mobilizing committee member) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 from 4 to 6 PM at the CLARI Room (AT340) at Saint Mary’s. To attend online, send an email to Erica to RSVP and receive a Zoom link. There will be refreshments, union trivia, and prizes. All CUPE 3912 members and guests are welcome to attend!

• A social media day of action, organized by CAUT, will take place all day on October 23, 2024 to amplify the voices of contract academic staff: MAKE IT FAIR FOR CONTRACT ACADEMIC STAFF Fair working conditions are fundamental to high quality post-secondary education. Join us in calling for the fair treatment of contract academic staff. We encourage members to use CAUT’s customizable social media material templatesand share them with the hashtag #MakeItFair and don’t forget to tag @cupe3912.ca

This summer, PT Faculty and TAs voted in favour of merging the two bargaining units. The university, however, was not in agreement so we will formally make an application to the provincial labour board to merge.

In the meantime (and after much planning and organizing that began in the fall of 2023), we have requested and secured three dates to start renegotiating our collective agreement that expired in August. The bargaining dates are October 17th (cancelled by the employer), 23rd, and 24th.

CUPE 3912 supports our colleagues at CUPE 2361 at Western in their fight for fair compensation and improved working conditions. CUPE 2361’s members are essential for the function of academia and innovation, and their demands must be met for Western to continue offering quality education and to conduct cutting-edge research.