By Greg Nepean, VP Part-Time Instructors at MSVU
Thank you to the Executive for trusting me to attend the forum, there were great conversations, and attendance did help me get grounded for bargaining.
Re-Cap-Day 1 (March.21, 2025)
- Strategic Lessons on Organizing for Bargaining (1st panelist)
- University of Ottawa’s Faculty Association, in their latest round of bargaining, sought parity in workload, minimum staffing levels and conversions from part time to full time for “replacement” (contract) profs with 7 years of services.
- How they got this, member-based organizing, they had the name of every member on a board on the wall of their office with a dot added for every activity the member participated in. Lowest engagement was from Engineering. They also got training on how to approach people for participation. 72% participation on an integrity petition, 81% strike vote.
- Greg’s participation: Went to the mic to encourage associations to carefully consider the needs of their part time faculty; not everyone wants conversions, many of our member want higher pay and better working conditions. Going full time helps those members that can but still leaves the rest of the members with precarious working conditions and low pay.
- Strategic Lessons on Organizing for Bargaining (2nd panelist)
- McGill University facing a hostile Employer who attempted decertification. Required different set of organizing techniques.
- Breakout Groups: Building a Bargaining Mandate.
- In this session we discussed ways to bring members concerns together in creating a bargaining package.
- We also completed the “Message Box Exercise” in which we developed responses for “Us on Us”, “Them on Us”, “Us on Them”, “Them on Them”. This helps us shape our communication strategy, both positive (what we can gain by collective action) and negative (to combat any derisive messages the Employer may put out).
- Cross Country Check-Up
Report on “Collective Bargaining and Organizing Forum”-CAUT.March.21-22, 2025
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- I missed this part of the day and the debrief to breakout groups, plus lunch so I could attend online the MSVU Negotiating Committee meeting.
- They Hired a Lawyer”
- This was the best part of the day and really the most relevant for me due to how I observed the impact of the MSVU BoG bringing in a lawyer during the MSVU Faculty Association strike in 2024.
- Presenter, David Wallridge, Pink/Larkin. Debriefed his experience on the role of lawyers in negotiating.
- Lawyers are bound by a code of conduct to advocate for their client strongly, when used as chief negotiator, this means an intent by the Employer to “play hardball” with the Union.
- Urged us to remember that the lawyer is acting on client’s instructions and instead of focusing on lawyer, focus on the person/group who gave the lawyer their instructions. Example (discussed at the mic): At MSVU, the Chair of BoG insisted on hiring the lawyer and the Labour Relations Subcommittee gave the marching orders.
- Examples of some instructions given to lawyers as chief negotiator Delay control and timing, they want to control timing and do not care about renewing a CA as the old one already stays in place.
- Indicated the importance of FOIPOP.
- Reminded us that FA’s have better knowledge of the occupational field, of the organization and how our collective agreements work. Knowledge imbalance in our favour.
- Advice: have clear strike issues, differentiate what to have, wish to have. Massive language proposals make it easy to delay (irony as we at the Mount have a lot of language changes-to protect our members).
Re-Cap-Day 2 (March.22, 2025)
- Panel Presentation on “Financial Retrenchment”. 1st panelist discussed the impact of the international student enrolment cap on Cape Breton University.
Report on “Collective Bargaining and Organizing Forum”-CAUT.March.21-22, 2025
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- CBU has had an enrolment up and down situation with international students. The Saudi Arabia cohort raised enrolments from 3000 in 2010 to approximately 5000 by 2015. The end of this cohort (due to changes in visas by Saudi Arabia government) caused declines in enrolment. Focusing on international students since 2020 led to an increase to almost 9000 students, most from India (the CBU administration learned nothing from the previous lesson on over-relying on one country to source international students).
- The government restrictions on international students have resulted in CBU enrolment declining, a $20 million loss of revenue and 30% across the board cutbacks. Results: reductions in academic staffing, closure of downtown campus, potential sabbatical deferment. Continuing to build large expensive buildings, no cuts to program as academic staff as expected to do “more with less”.
- Corporate governance model has led to lack of accountability and transparency (same criticism I have had of the MSVU Board of Governors for the last 12 months).
- Panel Presentation on “Financial Retrenchment”. 2nd panelist discussed the impact of international student enrolment cap on Lakehead University.
- Lakehead is geographically isolated with Winnipeg as its closest city. Life for international students is very different in this context, so is the impact of losing international students (i.e. hard to draw people from Southern Ontario).
- Despite solid enrolment, the decline in international students caused a $500000 deficit.
- Previous Board of Governors practices (combined with previous provincial government interference) resulted in a large, deferred maintenance bill, structural deficits and a “mortgage” (institutional debt to repay to provincial government). g. Focus on “efficiencies” rather than cutbacks.
- Forcing faculty to “self-assess” (i.e. justify their existence).
- Criteria based review (enrolment, alignment with “labour market needs”). Problematic as who knows needs for future, I suspect this is more training employer’s workers for them to save money plus pump out qualified, but cheap labour for business.
Report on “Collective Bargaining and Organizing Forum”-CAUT.March.21-22, 2025
- Impact on faculty has been program cuts, increased workload, infringement on academic freedom and lack of transparency.
- Lakehead Faculty Association advocating for no program cuts or loss of faculty jobs, drive to improve faculty control through Senate, priority for academic quality and to monitor “mission creep”.
Greg’s participation: I did go “to the mic” to make a comment, which was, to the effect, we needed to decouple the work of the University from enrolment. We are all chasing the same dwindling pool of students, the same shrinking research grant dollars, the overly in demand corporate sponsorship/donations. Instead of growing and retrenching when that fails, what if we purposedly “sized low”?
Example mentioned: If the Mount went from 4700 to 4000 students, and restructured the priorities of the institution to provide quality education to fewer students, what would this look like? How would the institution be different?
- Breakout Groups: Building Your Strategy at the Table
- Great Northern University is on strike for three weeks. Strong strike, first burst of participation strong but fading. Salary and most major issues are settled, but remote work for librarians plus workload issues for library, faculty are outstanding but not seen as important as what has been settled.]
- There are four issues outstanding and the breakout groups had to decide what was acceptable to settle and what we would remain on strike for.
- Copies are available, feel free to ask me.
- Breakout Groups: Building a Bargaining Mandate
- Completed a 5-step exercise on how to build support for bargaining proposals (establish a plan/timeline, consult with members, identity our issues, research, develop/approve the bargaining mandate.
- We applied these steps to a fictional (but based on real life) scenario involved the “Great Northern University” who is micro-managing librarians, resisting conversion of part to full time, crying poor despite a surplus, forcing members to go on-campus to do more of their work.
- Copies are available, feel free to ask me.
Report on “Collective Bargaining and Organizing Forum”-CAUT.March.21-22, 2025
- Panel: Using Collective Agreements to Fight Against Attacks on EDI
- 1st panelist discussed how Dalhousie University is old school, with a belief that normative practices solve EDI, i.e. Article 20.9. Workload for “designated faculty” when service work for designated group exceeds a threshold, an overload payment is made to compensate for extra service work (instead of course relief). Despite this clause, there is still a lack of recognition of service work obligations for designated groups and a lot “falls on the shoulders” of these members of the association. Just say no isn’t an option.
- 2nd panelist discussed the relationship between transpersons and unions i. Positives: gender inclusive language, leaves for gender affirming care as well as coverage for costs.
- Need to continue to advocate for availability of trans friendly health (faculty and students)
- iii. 70% to 90% of transpersons experience discrimination and harassment in their classrooms and institutions, as well as abuse from transphobes on social media in a highly political climate.
- Unions are better, but the bar is low and more work is needed.