SMU TA Update

Jonathan Mansvelt
CUPE 3912 Vice-President SMU TAs 

Happy March, everyone! I am honoured to have entered 2024 as the newly elected vice-president of the SMU Teaching Assistant (TA) Bargaining Unit. As an Honours Psychology student with eight TAships under my belt, I am excited to continue advocating for improved working conditions, especially given our crucial role in course delivery at SMU. It is hard to believe that less than a year ago, we were actively collecting membership cards to facilitate our unionization vote. In August, we received confirmation of our certification with a unanimous 100% of votes in favour of unionizing. As the academic year at SMU winds down, I am happy to report that the SMU TA Union continues to gain momentum. 

Since our official certification this past summer, CUPE 3912 has welcomed SMU TAs with open arms. Many TAs attended a celebratory BBQ dinner at the end of the fall term alongside CUPE 3912 executives, including President Cameron, VP SMU Part-Timers Erica, Communications Officer Tanya, and CUPE National Rep Mark. On December 15, a special membership meeting was held to elect interim executive members to represent our TA bargaining unit. Samantha Williams and I were elected into the steward and vice-president roles, respectively. Since then, Sam and I have been learning the ropes of union management from fellow CUPE 3912 executives as we continue working towards negotiating our first contract with SMU.

In January and Februrary, our priority was to collect information on what our members wanted to see in our first collective agreement. With support from our organizing committee, Sam and I created and circulated a comprehensive survey via email and social media. We also conducted a phone drive on January 21, reaching out to all members on our contact list. Many productive conversations were had, addressing topics such as union education, workplace issues faced by TAs, and suggestions for improvement. Given the tight-knit nature of SMU, we also engaged in several in-person conversations with TAs around campus. Early in February, we concluded data collection, and synthesized the anonymized results into a report, drawing from our surveying, phone drive conversations, and in-person discussions.

On February 26, we circulated an email with an infographic summarizing our report, outlining TAs’ principal demands. Key issues include increased wages and protection from exploitative working conditions. Throughout February and into March, our organizing committee will continue to draft our first collective agreement with help from President Cameron and CUPE National Rep Mark. We are incorporating language from the neighbouring Dalhousie TA contract and Canada-wide CUPE TA contracts. Our goal is to have a revised draft ready for bargaining by early April. Beyond bargaining, our first annual TA union meeting will be held mid-March. The agenda will include discussion of bargaining priorities, contract drafting updates, and executive election (vice-president, steward, and bargaining committee roles). We hope to see everyone there as we move forward to bargaining!

CUPE NS Scholarships, Bursaries, and Awards: Application Deadlines in March and April

There are exciting scholarship, bursary, and award opportunities from the Awards Committee of CUPE Nova Scotia with deadlines coming up soon. Eligible recipients must be members in good standing of CUPE 3912 or a child or a legal ward of a member in good standing. Please consider nominating yourself or another member so that we can recognize folks for the good work they are doing within our local. You can check out the opportunities here:

  • The J. H. Stewart Reid Memorial Fellowship Trust was founded to honour the memory of the first Executive Secretary of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). A minimum scholarship of $5,000 is awarded annually to a student registered in a doctoral program at a Canadian university. Deadline: April 30, 2024.

  • 2024 Mike McNeil CUPE Atlantic Weeklong School Scholarship: The Scholarship will cover the cost of the registration fee for a single room for the purpose of attending the CUPE Atlantic Weeklong School. Applications MUST be received no later than March 15, 2024.

  • 2024 CUPE NS Rocky Jones Bursary: CUPE Nova Scotia awards one $1,000.00 Rocky Jones Bursary annually for the upcoming academic year to a student that is an African Nova Scotian or an Indigenous Nova Scotian. Application must be complete and on the application form and must be received no later than April 15, 2024.

  • 2024 CUPE NS Higgins Insurance Scholarship: Two $1000.00 CUPE Nova Scotia Higgins Insurance Scholarships are awarded annually by CUPE Nova Scotia to individuals that meet the eligibility criteria and planning enrollment at an accredited post- secondary institution in the 2024-2025 academic year. Application must be complete and on the scholarship form and must be received by the CUPE Nova Scotia Awards Committee not later than April 15, 2024.

  • 2024 CUPE NS Sean Foley Health and Safety Award: CUPE NS presents two Health and Safety Awards annually, one to an individual and one to a Local Health and Safety Committee who has made a significant contribution to health and safety. This may be through education, awareness or actions that made a difference. The Nomination Form must be complete and legible and mailed or faxed to the attention of the CUPE NS Awards Committee to the address below by April 15th, 2024 to be considered for this award.

  • 2024 Betty Jean Sutherland Sister of the Year Award The CUPE Nova Scotia Betty Jean Sutherland Sister of the Year Award endeavors to recognize a union sister who has proven their dedication to the Labour Movement specifically in advancing Equality Rights for women. A sister who embodies the principles that Betty Jean lived by. Completed Nomination Forms MUST be received by April 15, 2024 to be considered.

  • 2024 Barb Kowalski Literacy Award CUPE Nova Scotia is seeking nominations for individuals or locals that have promoted literacy within their union, workplace and or community. There are two awards available annually: one for an individual member and one for a Local Union. Nominations must be in by April 15th, 2024.

 

Understanding our Code of Conduct

As CUPE members, staff, and elected officers, we commit to one another and to the union to be governed by the principles of the Code of Conduct and agree to:

  • Respect the views of others, even when we disagree.

  • Recognize and value individual differences.

  • Communicate openly.

  • Support and encourage each other.

  • Make sure that we do not harass or discriminate against each other.

  • Commit to not engaging in offensive comments or conduct.

  • Make sure that we do not act in ways that are aggressive, bullying, or intimidating.

  • Take responsibility for not engaging in inappropriate behaviour due to use of alcohol or other drugs while participating in union activities, including social events.

A complaint regarding the Code of Conduct will be handled as follows:

  1. If possible, a member may attempt to deal directly with the person alleged to have engaged in behaviour contrary to the Code by asking them to stop such behaviour. If that is not possible, or if it does not resolve the problem, a member may bring forward a complaint.
  2. Any member can bring a complaint to the attention of the Membership Officer, who has been properly appointed by CUPE3912 Executive Committee and designated to be in charge of receiving behavior complaints from members to enhance the rights and obligations outlined in our bylaws and the CUPE constitution.
  3. The Membership Officer will work to seek a resolution. If this fails to resolve the matter, the Membership Officer shall report the matter to the Executive Committee. The Membership Officer has the authority to expel members from a meeting or other event for serious or persistent offences.

Working people don’t get what they deserve, they get what they negotiate

Cameron Ells
CUPE 3912 President

 “Working people don’t get what they deserve, they get what they negotiate.” CUPE 3912 NSCAD member Rebecca Roher created this image some years ago. The text is a variation of a 1996 Chester Karrass book title. She gave permission for CUPE 3912 to use this image in our current bargaining cycles of Collective Agreement negotiations with Dalhousie University (Dal.), Saint Mary’s University (SMU), Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU), and the Nova Scotia of Art and Design (NSCAD). 

Three are the next version of the 2020 – 2024 Collective Agreements with Dal, SMU and MSVU. Two will be first collective agreements with NSCAD and for the SMU Teaching Assistants, two units new to CUPE 3912 in 2023. One is for the SMU Language Center Instructors, where the employer is closing their program.  Our Lead Negotiator for what might be six employer agreements in 2024 – CUPE Staff Representative  Mark Cunningham – reminds us that negotiations are about our relative balance of power.

Institutions, be they social, educational, legal, political, or otherwise, have long term sustainable strength  – like an ecosystem – where there is a capacity to adapt to ever changing circumstances.  

Within the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), compared to some other organizations, there is relatively more space, scope and opportunity for local, independent decision making. Within CUPE 3912, there is space, scope and opportunity for the six different Negotiating Teams to do things differently while sharing a similar mission, and some resources, to improve member working conditions. 

CUPE 3912 members are also an uncommonly and relatively diverse group of backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets. The opportunities are there, to speak, listen, think about, discuss, and consider a variety of perspectives, before legitimate democratic decision making takes place. 

Innovations, improvements, experiments, or adaptations by one CUPE 3912 negotiating team may be an influence on what is used by other teams. Some “oh whoops” or some accidently “spilled milk” along the way, can be part of an acceptable price to encourage creativity and informed risk taking. Our SMU Instructor Bargaining Proposal mandate involved online voting for each proposal. Some developing first contract text being developed will be shared by the new SMU Teaching Assistant and NSCAD teams. Innovative pension proposals developed for one unit of CUPE 3912 instructors will be used in proposals with other employers. We help each other.

A now former Dal President thought that the 2022 CUPE 3912 Dal strike was probably necessary in order to achieve our November 2022 agreement. Our demonstrated capacity to competently organize and execute a strike if necessary, is a useful tool, effort and option, in support of our negotiations.  

With each bargaining cycle, CUPE 3912 members have ever increasing opportunities to be informed, involved and contribute to our negotiations and related efforts to achieve our goals. Our diversity, encouragement of creative adaptations, informed risk management, and bottom up decision making instincts, helps us to achieve our goals.    

Towards shared governance at SMU

Karen Harper
CUPE 3912 member at SMU and MSVU
Former CUPE 3912 President and Communications Officer

A union such as CUPE 3912 helps improve working conditions for its members through collective bargaining and grievances. Another way union members can influence working conditions in the academic environment is through shared university governance. University governance is essential to the operation of the university and includes the Senate and Board of Governors. The Senate is ‘responsible for the educational policy of the University’ and the Board of Governors ‘oversees the conduct of the University’s affairs’.

Full time faculty and sometimes part-time faculty are involved in governance at Canadian universities. The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has a campaign on Shared Governance (see their video). ‘Decision-making powers are concentrated in the hands of a few, who act behind closed doors, while the voices of academic staff and other key stakeholders are being weakened or silenced. Collegiality — or shared governance — is at the heart of what a university is and should be.’ CAUT is putting together information on university governance across Canada including the composition of Board of Governors and Senate. An initial glance at their results shows that at least ten universities have a Senate with at least one designated member who is a part-time instructor.

At Saint Mary’s University, full-time faculty and students are part of the Board of Governors and the Senate, but part-time faculty are currently not eligible to vote or serve on Senate, despite teaching a third of the courses.

Efforts to change this started years ago in 2016 when Phil Bennett (CUPE 3912 VP for SMU PT instructors at the time) requested and received a legal opinion from CAUT about whether part-time faculty have the right to vote and stand for election to the Senate and Board. The response was YES – the Senate is not within its rights to exclude us.

One of my goals when I became president of CUPE 3912 in 2019 was to explore options for our members to serve on Senate. I made some progress at SMU before the pandemic and bargaining became too overwhelming. I met with the chair of the SMU Senate bylaws committee and forwarded a letter I requested from CAUT about the importance of part-time faculty being on Senate.

Last fall I resumed my quest by meeting with the SMU Senate bylaws committee. They are very supportive and plan on proposing a bylaws amendment that will enable us to vote and serve on Senate as academic staff (bylaws) . However, this would not establish designated seats for part-time faculty on Senate, which would require the opening of the University Act. Senate currently includes fifteen members selected by the academic staff.

The bylaws committee is gathering information about the wording of eligibility for part-time instructors at other universities and determining the wording of their proposed amendments. Any proposed bylaw changes would need to be approved by the entire Senate. They have asked me to survey SMU part-time instructors to provide information to present to the entire Senate. This is a great opportunity to educate our members and to get your input on whether we should seek designated seats on Senate and to assess how much interest there is for individual members to run for election to serve on Senate.

What you can do:

  • Keep informed and please complete the short survey about governance this spring.
  • The Senate has recently established a Cross-faculty Committee to review the ICE (student evaluations) including issues related to EDI and would like to include a part-time faculty member. If you are interested in sitting on this committee, please contact smu.cupe3912@gmail.com by March 15, 2024.

Want to Build Our Collective Power Together? Form a Caucus or Working Group!

Neil Balan
CUPE 3912 Member at SMU and MSVU
Member of the SMU PT Faculty Negotiating Team

As a long-time contract faculty member involved collectively with different unions across different universities, I’ve joined and participated in caucuses and working groups (for instance: universities fossil fuel divestment, universities and migrant rights). Though similar to a more formal sub-committee, a caucus or working group is an informal issue-centered way of organizing semi-regularly to talk, engage, and exchange ideas and assessments. They can serve as valuable ways to build unity, tease out internal contradictions and antagonisms, and connect members. While they don’t have any formal remit within the union, and while they aren’t tasked with any kind of policy development, caucus or working group work can generate opportunities to collectively organize and mobilize our membership. They provide methods for clarifying ideas about our labour, the institutions we navigate and negotiate, and the wider social and structural forces that shape how we work.

Beyond your teaching work and your time spent trading your labour for pay, do you have an outlet for some of your social, political, or political economic concerns whether in relation to university spaces or beyond? It could be that you’re able to work, write, and/or produce academic or scholarly work that addresses these concerns. Maybe you’re part of a research or community-based action network. Or maybe you scream (daily) into the social media void, generating bits and pieces of analysis or commentary.

My sense: our common interests as union members and workers allow us an opportunity to share, develop, and discuss whatever we deem to be matters of concern and importance. A caucus or working group need not be onerous. It can work like a reading or study group with decidedly measured expectations. The goal: we can learn about issues collectively and together. It can start in an inchoate way with the core concern “in-solution” and requiring further condensation and consolidation enabled by way of ongoing encounters and meetings. The initial task of most working groups or caucuses is straightforward: agree on a mandate or goal, select a more concrete focus, and decide on a way of structuring engagements. Go from there.

Consider this a call to action by way of doing what many of us do well: reading, thinking, writing, talking, and sharing. For my part, I’d like to propose two working groups: the “Neither Excellence nor Excellent: Austerity and the Barely-Public University” Working Group and a “What’s New in Progressive PSE Policy in Canada” Working Group.

If you’re interested in ether, email me at neil.balan@smu.ca or neilbalan@gmail.com.

If anything, working groups and caucuses are at their best when they are member-driven and ground-up. If neither of these proposed groups aligns with your interests, think about proposing or pitching something else. Doing things together only makes us a stronger unit and stronger union as we head into our next round of bargaining.

Statement of Solidarity with CUPE 3903

CUPE 3912 supports our brethren exercising their right to collective action at York University. As precarious academics ourselves, we understand and sympathize with the financial, academic, and moral pressures imposed by post-secondary institutions in Canada. It is to our dismay that the chronic undervaluing of the work of contract academics is a nationwide issue, and we pledge our support for your strike actions the same as you did for us two years ago. Fight the good fight, we stand in solidarity!

Support for Dalhousie University Post Doctorate Researchers’ Contract Negotiations

The CUPE 3912 membership includes Dalhousie University part time academic service providers – Instructors, Teaching Assistants, Markers, Demonstrators, Clinical Instructors and more.

In support of the contract negotiation efforts of Dalhousie University Post-Doctoral researchers (Post – Docs) represented by PSAC Local 86001, we are encouraging our members to consider:

  • Joining the Wednesday January 31, 2024 (1:00 – 3:00 pm) PSAC 86001 Information Picket in front of the Dalhousie Student Union building at 6136 University Avenue, Halifax
  • Sending emails this week to the employer supporting the Dalhousie Post Docs
  • Sharing support for PSAC 86001 Post Docs through personal social media channels, as CUPE 3912 does the same with its resources.
  • Learning more about PSAC 86001 Post Docs in their contract negotiations and why they have a Mandate to Strike from their members
  • Support CUPE 3912 – PSAC 86001 efforts in 2024 to improve member working conditions through collective bargaining and other means, that result in new collective agreements

The Dalhousie University Post-Doctoral researchers (Post Docs), are represented in collective bargaining negotiations with the employer by the PSAC (Public Service Alliance of Canada) Local 86001. About half of these researchers were once post graduate students at Dalhousie University.  For years, their wage rates have not kept pace with market conditions for similar services, or inflation, or the cost of living. The Halifax cost of available affordable housing has dramatically changed in recent years.

January 25, 2024 negotiations involved a Nova Scotia Department of Labour Conciliator meeting separately with employer and Union representatives, who were not meeting face to face. CUPE 3912 and PSAC 86001 members care about the services they provide to the Dalhousie University community.  Hopefully there will soon be a Tentative Agreement. However in December 2023, PSAC 86001 members voted in support of a Mandate to Strike At Dalhousie University, these are sometimes acted on.