Amalgamation of the QUFA Bargaining Units

While QUFA cannot predict what will actually happen in every instance in an amalgamated bargaining unit, we can point to some of the reasons we are supporting amalgamation.

Process

The QUFA Executive recommends approval of the amalgamation. A single agreement will reflect equitably the contributions of all faculty at Queen's. It will facilitate both future bargaining and the administration of the collective agreement.

Ease of negotiation is not the only reason to amalgamate. Indeed, were QUFA to believe that it would disadvantage the circumstances of any of the sub-groups, we would not have suggested or supported amalgamation at all.

Amalgamation will allow the University and QUFA to rethink bargaining unit definitions to make sure they are workable, and it will be easier to solve this creatively when discussing all possibilities at the same time rather than in a fragmented fashion as we currently must do with two sets of negotiations and two JCAAs.

Despite the fact that members in the current Sessional Adjuncts bargaining unit will be outnumbered by members in the current Faculty Librarian Archivist bargaining unit, and that Sessionals would not have their own JCAA to voice their concerns only, the majority of Sessional Adjuncts still supported the idea of amalgamation in a poll conducted prior to the last round of Sessional bargaining. To give some sense of the numbers (rounded to the nearest 5):

Membership of Faculty, Librarian and Archivist BU (total 955)

Tenure-track and (full-time, full-responsibility) Non-tenured Faculty - 770
Librarians Archivists - 45
Term and Continuing Adjuncts - 140

Membership of Sessional Adjunct BU (slight variation each term)

Sessional Adjuncts - 350-400 (Fall/Winter 2006/07)

Working conditions and compensation

QUFA is committed to negotiating provisions that improve working conditions and compensation. QUFA protects the rights and promotes the interests of all members, and building a consensus around future bargaining priorities will continue to involve widespread consultation,

QUFA bargains to get the best for each group rather than playing one group off at the expense of another. Including Sessionals will simply widen the range of issues, but it will not dilute QUFA's commitment to always improve conditions for all groups. There will always be different issues and different priorities for each sub-group, as there is even now in the FLA collective agreement. Indeed, amongst tenure-track Members alone there will be differing priorities among sub-groups (pension issues, maternity leave, start-up research funds, etc) and consultation is needed to find a position that has the widest support.

There are now differences of treatment that do not make sense amongst the adjunct groups and which cannot be easily discussed when there are two agreements. For example, Term Adjuncts end up being paid less per course taught than are Sessional Adjuncts and there seems to be no rational reason for this practice. As a result, some members prefer to take on Sessional positions where they might otherwise have taken on Term positions, which can be more difficult to administer for both academic as well as administrative reasons.

There are also similarities. For example, research is done by members from all groups. There are some Continuing Adjuncts who are required to do research and/or service work on top of teaching, and not just on a volunteer basis, so the differences between them and tenure-track can sometimes be relatively minor. Many Adjuncts (Sessional, Term, and Continuing) and Librarians Archivists contribute to the body of scholarship coming out of Queen's and boost its reputation in this way even though they are not obliged to do so nor are paid for doing so. Many of these members have Ph.D.s and are scholars in their own right.

An interesting example where FLA and SA concerns overlap around research and scholarship: many retired tenured faculty now teach as Sessional Adjuncts, but can only co-supervise (not supervise alone) graduate students, and then only if they have been successful in achieving emeritus/emerita status. How will this play out in the University's push to expand the graduate programme given that it is not diverting proportionate resources to expand its number of tenure-track appointments? Wouldn-t it be a win-win situation if retired faculty were allowed to help with some of the burden graduate supervision can cause in an already overstretched faculty?

There is a vast disconnect between the number of full-time jobs that actually exist and those that will be needed according to the unrealistic expansiveness of the Principal's Strategic Plan and the Multi-Year Accountability Agreement. With a more complete picture of teaching at Queen's under discussion in an amalgamated scenario, QUFA hopes that the University will consider the reality before them when considering resources for more full-time positions.

Communications

QUFA has made the following efforts to disseminate information in advance of the vote in addition to responding to questions and comments on an individual basis:

December 1, 2006 - Fall General Meeting

Mr. Linley (Co-Chair SA JCAA) reported on the progress in constituting a joint committee to consider the amalgamation issue and pointed out some pros and cons in connection with amalgamation.

March/April - QUFA Voices

Dr. Holmes (QUFA President) headlined with an article about amalgamation.

April 4 or 5, 2007 - Email Message

QUFA sent an email message from Dr. Holmes to members of both bargaining units with information about amalgamation, the open Council meeting on April 16, and the news that there would be a ratification vote the week of April 23 with results being announced at the Spring General Meeting on April 30.

April 12, 2007 - Meeting of Heads of Departments

Approximately 15 out of a potential 50 Heads showed up for the discussion. We heard from 2 or 3 Heads after the meeting as they could not attend.

April 13, 2007 - Email Message

QUFA followed up with a reminder message from Dr. Holmes, Mr. Linley and Ms Adamson (CO-Chair FLA JCAA) about the April 16 open Council meeting, a repetition of some of the earlier information, and an appeal to members to contact QUFA if they had any questions. This message and the Memorandum of Agreement of the Joint Committee were also posted on the QUFA website.

April 16, 2007 - Open Council of Representatives Meeting

Approximately 20 out of a potential 35 Representatives and Officers as well as approximately half a dozen other members attended this meeting. Of the Councilors and Officers who could not attend, almost all have been actively engaged in the amalgamation discussion.