was reported earlier, a new collective agreement was ratified in early January covering CUPE Local 3909 Unit 2 members.   In our last newsletter we provided you with a glimpse of some of the things that were achieved at the bargaining table.  We are currently in the process of finalizing the collective agreement and it will be made available to all of our members online and in a handy booklet.

In the meantime we are outlining below everything you need to know about the new contract.

• It is a 3-year collective agreement from September 1, 2015 to August 31, 2018.
• All employees will receive a lump sum payment of 1.4% of all wages earned between September 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015 in lieu of retro pay.  You As should have already received this money.  If you did not please contact the Local Union Office.
• Salary increases which include:
  • New minimum stipend for employees who have RFR and increases in this amount in each year of agreement.  See Article 18.1.1
  • Increases of 1.5% effective January 1 2016, 1.0% effective September 1, 2016 and 1.5% effective September 1 2017 for Sessional Instructors (without RFR) paid at the minimum stipend, employees paid by the student or web conferencing and employees paid by the hour.
  • A .5% market adjustment to the Sessional Instructor minimum stipend effective September 1, 2016.
  • Distance and Online courses to be paid by the student based on the student count at the close of registration.  Eliminate the adjustment of pay based on assignments.
  • Music Teachers to be paid for actual hours spent at recitals.
  • Read ARTICLE 18 SALARIES
  • Revised Architecture Studio Rates. Click here to see CUPE Architecture Letter of Understanding.
  • Provisions to ensure that employees who are required to travel in the course of their work will be reimbursed for reasonable expenses in accordance with UM Travel Policy
• Lump sum payment for employees paid over the minimum.  This was removed as it was a very small amount and difficult to enforce.
• Instructors under this agreement will not be paid for invigilating another instructor’s exams nor will they be required to do so.  Invigilating their own exams is compensated for in their stipend.
• Benefits:  Summer Session to count towards eligibility for benefits.
• Right of First Refusal:  A simpler, transparent and easier to earn system for RFR.
• Click here to read new CUPE RFR provisions.
  • Everyone entitled to RFR1/RFR2 as of September 1, 2015 will continue to have it
  • RFR1 and RFR2 to be renamed RFR
  • RFR:  teach a course 3 times in separate academic terms and you have earned RFR.  Terms do not need to be consecutive.
  • Only one section per term will be counted towards earning RFR
  • Fall 2015 (transition term from one system to the other) cannot be the definitive 3^rd time for RFR
  • System to be automated.  Easier to track.
  • Confirmation time is approximately 60 days.  Will be in writing.
  • To maintain RFR you must teach the course satisfactorily.  SEEQ’s alone are not enough to determine satisfactory work performance.
  • Written notification and process if Instructor has not earned RFR after 3 appointments or RFR is lost or revoked.
  • Instructor may lose RFR if they have not taught the course within the last 5 years but may be reinstated, upon request, after a subsequent satisfactory appointment.
  • RFR can only be used for one section of the course in one term.  The Instructor can apply for other available sections without using RFR.
  • Read full RFR Article
• Discipline and Dismissal changes to include a non-disciplinary coaching letter, to provide the employee with more information when called into a disciplinary meeting as well as right to Union representation: Click to read Article 17 Discipline
• Grievance Procedure and Arbitration changes to provide a more efficient, timely and easier process based on basic labour law procedures. Click here for new ARTICLE 21 GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE AND ARBITRATION
• Retention of provisions for specific, agreed upon instructors who exceed the yearly 33 credit hour maximum.
• A new Letter of Understanding that if there are significant changes in the delivery of Distance and Online Courses that impact our members, the parties will meet to negotiate these changes.  Status quo benefits are protected if no agreement.
• Commitment that there will be Union input into Sessional Orientation.
• Commitment to work on Sessional Librarian issues within 3 months of ratification.

Exile as a Space of Disruption in the Academy

In this article Giroux again excoriates the culture of “business” which has ravaged the modern university and made us all into automatons doing the business of the managers.

“Under the regime of neoliberalism, too many institutions of higher education have transformed the culture of education into the culture of business and are now characterized by a withdrawal into the private and the irrelevant. In this view, education is driven largely by market forces that undermine any viable vision of education as a public good connected to wider social problems.”

As a counterpoint he calls for the return of the academic as an exile, the person who defends and exhilarates in the preservation of the cultural space of the university as a public good which can “…imagine a more just future”.  Read more.

Fall of the Faculty/Rise of the All Administrative University

It might be a good counterpoint to Giroux’s analysis of the “neo-liberal” university to consider Benjamin Ginsberg’s The Fall of the Faculty.  In it he “…provides a compelling and accurate diagnosis of the contemporary ills plaguing the rise of the all-administrative university.” Such an entity, he argues “has been ruinous for students, who foot steadily increasing tuition bills to keep the administrative bloat going, bad for faculty autonomy as contingent labor becomes increasingly prevalent, with the concepts of academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance devolving into relics of the past; and destructive of the public interest as educational institutions classified as not-for-profit enterprises use non-taxable endowment income and indirect cost recovery associated with grants and discoveries—and in some instances grant overhead–to facilitate the creation of organizational wealth, which unsurprisingly goes to increasing administrative salaries and perks instead of to the funding of teaching and research.”  Read more.

All members of CUPE 3909 (Student and Sessional Academic Workers) are encouraged to attend the Annual General Meeting on March 29.  The Executive Board will present reports outlining activities during the 2015-2016 academic year, the Trustees will present their audit and recommendations, the Bylaws Committee will submit changes to a vote, and we will hold elections for the 2016-2017 Executive Board.  If you would like to nominate anyone to the board (President, Vice President Unit 1, Vice President Unit 2, Vice President Social Policy, Secretary Treasurer, and Recording Secretary) please contact the Local Union Office.

There will be a light lunch and drinks!

If you checked your UM email for news from the Union, you are aware that the Unit 2 membership ratified a new Collective Agreement during a series of presentations/votes last week.  The new pay scales are in effect as of January 1, 2016.  See the new rates below.

Download (PDF, 138KB)

As you may know from our emails, the Unit 2 membership ratified a new Collective Agreement last week during a series of presentations and votes.  There are many changes, but some of the more substantial changes are in Clause 11.6 that deals with the Right of First Refusal.  Read the article below.

Download (PDF, 269KB)

Dr. Henry Giroux comes at us again with a detailed explanation of how the capitalist economic system molds minds to further its interests. Of course higher education is a target as Giroux explains: “Higher education represents one area where neoliberalism wages war on any field of study that might encourage students to think critically. One egregious example was on full display in North Carolina, where Republican Party members – who control the Board of Governors – decimated higher education in that state by voting to cut 46 degree programs. One member defended such cuts with the comment, “We’re capitalists, and we have to look at what the demand is, and we have to respond to the demand.” (9) This is more than an example of crude economic instrumentalism, it is also a recipe for instituting an academic culture of thoughtlessness and a kind of stupidity receptive to what Hannah Arendt once called totalitarianism.  Read the full article.

Tuesday, 24 November – 3:00 location TBD

It’s time to build a university that listens to all voices in the community, a university that treats people fairly, a university that is democratic and transparent.

Join the rally to stop the cuts AND to protest international student fee  hikes.

Facebook event: here

This situation reflects practices in the USA, but is quite analogous to our own in Canada.  College and university students are being educated by adjunct professors (sessionals) who are being paid poverty level wages. All while student debt is at historic levels.

An association called the New Faculty Majority has produced a short film that tells the story of these teachers who have dedicated their lives to imparting knowledge to the next generation.

In “A Liberal Education is Now More Useful Than Job-Specific Skills“, John Kay discusses the need for strong programmes in the Arts. Coming on the heels of US/Indian journalist and news commentator, Fareed Zakaria’s recent publication,  In defense of  a Liberal Education, Kay underscores how necessary a degree in the Liberal Arts will be in a rapidly changing world.

After hearing the arguments for and against the Cuts proposed by this university one should be dismayed but not surprised. As an organisation, U of M bills itself as promoting “truth” while simultaneously playing host to one of the planets most controversial multi-national companies on its campus: Monsanto. A recent article refers to the manner in which such companies make money: by destroying our own habitat, and affecting, indeed, our health.

Post Doc, Grad, and Undergraduate Student Academic Workers (CUPE 3902 Unit 1) are on strike at the University of Toronto.  The U of T has not increased the student funding package since 2008.  While the hourly rates may have increased, these increases have been offset by a decrease in other funding to students (see the graphic).  Read more about the reasons behind the U of T strike here.

At York, Contract Faculty, TAs, Graduate Assistants, and Research Assistants are also on strike.  Some of their concerns centre around job security and the issues created when increasing international student tuition is not reflected in pay.  A recent video reminds everyone that this is all part of a struggle to protect the quality of education.

CUPE 3909 stands in solidarity with Academic Workers facing worsening working conditions.  Read our letter of support below.

Download (PDF, 264KB)