Bargaining Update

Dear Members,

I hope that all is well with you, and that you are having, or will have some time for a restful break at some point over the next few months.

On behalf of the negotiating team, I wanted to give you our latest bargaining update, before we enter into mediation tomorrow, Wednesday, May 20th. We hope that our mediator, Dave Schaub, will be able to help us and the admin team come to a reasonable deal. While we have made progress on a significant number of issues, we profoundly disagree on several key matters. Although as you know, we (with other postsecondary unions) have gained access to the “enhanced financial mandate” from the provincial government, we have little agreement with the administration as to how these funds are to be spent.

Workload

We are seeking agreement on creating a fund that will provide course reductions and/or TA funds for those whose Unit needs and resources result in unreasonable and inequitable teaching workloads. We are also seeking much clearer language for Unit Standards as to what defines Normal Workload, and what exceeds it, to help identify when course reductions are warranted. We do not believe that the admin team’s proposals regarding workload will in fact address Member workload concerns. The admin team has thus far opposed most of our workload proposals, stating that Members have control over their teaching workload due to their academic freedom to choose their course pedagogies. This has been a continuous point of contention that ignores the impact of increasing class size in many units, and the impacts of increasing accommodations, the advent of GenAI and the decline in central supports on our Members all across campus.

Who Benefits from the Mandate Funds?

The admin also seems to believe that better training for Members will address workload concerns. The Admin have provided proposals to hire additional staff in other unions using our mandate funds, one to train our members to understand student accommodations more clearly, and one to train TAs (a single position to train TAs across the entire campus, in all disciplinary norms). We believe this will do nothing to reduce the actual workload involved in our jobs. If the University feels that this training is necessary, we believe they can pay to hire these staff members from University funds. Mandate money should be used for the direct benefit of faculty and librarians, not to pay for staff to do work that is the responsibility of the University.

This is part of a larger pattern of seeking to push the Faculty Association to agree to funding staff and other positions through a number of the admin’s proposals. These proposals certainly benefit the University, by having mandate money fund core University functions. But most are at best only minimally, or performatively, of benefit to faculty and librarians.

Technological Change

Thanks very much to those members who sent us their accounts regarding the negative impacts on their workload and other working conditions of a range of recent technological changes at UVic. An anonymized summary of your narratives can be found here. This information will be of significant value as we continue to advocate strongly that the administration provide us with adequate notice, consultation and needed support regarding all significant technological changes they are planning. Thus far, the admin has refused to agree to any technological change language at the FA table, although they have agreed to such language for other unions on campus. They have also rejected all proposed FA language that would guarantee that they will provide adequate notice of any electronic surveillance by the University, that such surveillance would not be used to monitor Member performance, that they will not monitor our email or other electronic communications, and that they will not require the recording of lectures. These are important issues for our Members, and we continue to seek Collective Agreement language to protect us.

Equity/BPoC/Indigenous Members

Through sustained advocacy and a series of concrete proposals, we are making progress in advancing anti-racism and inclusion supports for BPoC members. However, the administration is again seeking to fund most of a staff position through mandate funds as part of the “trade” for such crucial support. Negotiation on Indigenous issues remains ongoing, and some changes have been agreed to. However, we are concerned by the admin’s lack of transparency on decision-making processes, which raises questions about the depth of their commitment to the University’s stated decolonization goals.

Librarians

We are seeking parity for librarians on a number of fronts. Although we may achieve UAAC protections for librarians, the admin is driving a very hard bargain there, in terms of what they are demanding in return. They have rejected parity in CPI for librarians, and are also not willing to provide any parity in rights to collegial governance.

Compensation

While the administration and the FA are in agreement about the general wage increase that is part of all public sector agreements in this round, we are not in agreement on a number of other key issues related to compensation. The FA is seeking an increase in CPI values, since they have not increased since 2019. The admin says they have other priorities for mandate funds and cannot support an increase in CPI. The FA sees an increase in CPI, which would increase salaries for our members, as more important than funding staff positions that should be the responsibility of the admin.

The admin may be willing to agree to an increase of two years until CPI drop off for full professors, at a reduced CPI rate. This could be positive, but at present what they are seeking to “trade” for this is not acceptable to the FA, although we hope we can ultimately come to an agreement here. The admin is also only proposing very limited increases in member benefits, while the FA is seeking to significantly increase those benefits prioritized by the membership, including counselling, physio, massage, vision care, virtual care and creation of a modest Health Spending Account. We are also seeking significant increases in Pro-D funds.

Thanks again to all for your support. It has made a real difference. We will work hard over the coming two weeks in mediation and will keep you posted.

All the very best,

Lynne, on behalf of the FA Negotiating Team

Christine O’Bonsawin, History

Moustapha Fall, School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures

Travis Martin, Physics and Astronomy

Michelle Miranda, Math and Statistics

Jane Morrison, Library

Bruce Ravelli, Sociology

Caterina Valeo, Mechanical Engineering

Nathan Todd, FA staff