Will be held on February 17th - from 5:30 PM – 8:00 p.m. at 31 Wellesley Street.

Space is limited. Please RSVP by Monday, February 13th to either: Peter Thompson at:  peter.thompson@mpac.ca orElizabeth Ha at:  elizabethhaha@yahoo.com

They are featuring guest speakers:

• Tiki Mercury-Clarke
  A Canadian-born singer-pianist, storyteller, lyricist, composer and cultural historian.
  She has become a keeper of Afrikan ancestral wisdom, and, in harmony with tradition, a vessel for the often hard to find, authentic, African North American musical expression called jazz.
• Organizers from Justicia
  A volunteer run political non-profit collective comprised of activists from diverse walks of life (including labour activists, educators, researchers, students and youth of colour) based in Toronto, Ontario and Vancuover, B. C.
  They strive to promote the rights of migrant farmworkers (participating in the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program and the Low Skilled Workers Program) and farmworkers without status.

“Academic freedom means that academic staff play the predominant role in determining curriculum, assessment standards, and other academic matters.”

– Canadian Association of University Teachers Policy Statement

Academic freedom is a broad-ranging issue that extends throughout the work done by college faculty members. It affects teaching, research, professional development, course materials, teaching style, delivery modes, and evaluation methods.

More and more, academic decisions are made in accordance with management’s nonacademic priorities. This includes not only the major college-wide issues, but also the everyday decisions about what is happening in the classroom.

One of top three issues at pre-bargaining conference

Academic freedom ranked among the top three issues at the October college faculty prebargaining conference. This issue has been steadily gaining momentum with college faculty as they recognize the need for contract language to protect the academic process.

The 2008 Workload Taskforce concluded its formal recommendations with this:

“Given the rise of applied degrees, college/university partnerships, and collaborative programs, Ontario’s Colleges are clearly expanding and developing as complex institutions of higher education. We recommend, therefore, that the parties consider mechanisms that will enhance collegiality, professional development, and academic freedom.”

Protecting academic process

Increasingly, the colleges’ decisions on curriculum, new programs, resource allocations, delivery mode, etc., run contrary to this recommendation. There is less and less input from faculty, if any.

Ontario colleges have matured over the past 45 years, but they have failed to incorporate collegial decision-making practices.

Even as colleges develop degree programs, articulation agreements with university partners, and change their names and mandates, the collective agreement between the colleges and faculty still lacks academic freedom protection.

“Most important, the academic freedom of the faculty and instructional staff serves students well—in fact, it is the hallmark of excellence in education… Professionalism and free exchange are at the heart of education, and academic freedom is the mechanism that allows them to flourish.”

- The American Federation of Teachers Policy Statement

Your Bargaining Team

• Carolyn Gaunt, Cambrian College (Co-Chair
• Ted Montgomery, Seneca College (Co-Chair)
• Rod Bain, Algonquin College
• Gary Bonczak, Fleming College
• Benoit Dupuis, La Cité collégiale
• Lynn Dee Eason, Sault College
• JP Hornick, George Brown College

Contact your team: negotiations2012@gmail.com

Download the PDF file here

• on Thursday, February 9 from 5 to 7 p.m.
• in the ASHTONBEE AUDITORIUM
• Light refreshments will be served

This is an excellent opportunity to have your ideas heard, share ideas with colleagues and speak directly to the bargaining team.

You can also share your views when you participate in our online Pre-Bargaining Survey. Follow this link for the survey.

The short answer is that they come from the faculty members – professors, instructors, counsellors and librarians.

Here’s how it works:

Before the contract expires, the union asks members what they would like to see changed in the next contract.

The Local Demand-set Meeting

To gather member responses, each college union local has a meeting where any member can move almost any change to the contract. (Pensions and changes to legislation are not negotiable, but everything else is.)

A member can propose changes to basics such as workload, salary, benefits, and working conditions; more limited items such as moving allowance or grievance rights; or areas not yet covered in the contract. Members at the local meeting vote on the proposals brought forward by their colleagues.

Demands that receive majority support are forwarded to the provincial demand setting meeting.

The Provincial Demand-set Meeting

At the provincial meeting, delegates from every college can propose only demands that passed at a local meeting; no new demands are permitted. Provincial delegates vote on proposals that are properly moved and seconded. Only those demands receiving majority support at the provincial meeting can be included in the union’s demands in negotiations. Neither the union centrally nor the bargaining team is permitted to introduce demands of their own.

The role of the bargaining team

The role and responsibility of the bargaining team – the seven faculty members elected by their colleagues – is to advance the demands they have been given and try to achieve them.

While not all demands will be successfully met in the course of bargaining, the team works to ensure identified priorities are addressed.

Ratification vote

The final say belongs to the members; just as they began the bargaining process, they also end it. A contract becomes final only when members have voted to accept it.

For more information on when your Local Demand-set meeting will be held, contact us.

The Provincial Demand-set meeting will be held from March 31st to April 1st, 2012.

For more information please visit www.opseu.org.

Your bargaining team

• Carolyn Gaunt, Cambrian College (Co-Chair) : cbgaunt@eastlink.ca

• Ted Montgomery, Seneca College (Co-Chair) : ted@opseu560.org

• Rod Bain, Algonquin College : rodbainlocal415@gmail.com

• Gary Bonczak, Fleming College : gbonczak@cogeco.ca

• Benoit Dupuis, Collége La Cité : bdupuic620@rogers.com

• Lynn Dee Eason, Sault College : ldeason@shaw.ca

• JP Hornick, George Brown College : jphornick@gmail.com

Preparations begin!

Our current collective agreement will expire in August 31, 2012.

CAAT-A Bargaining Team

Bargaining a new contract may seem like a distant event displaced by current concerns around marking, teaching, counselling students, providing library services, adjusting to new technology, and other issues familiar to faculty. However, preparations for negotiating the next collective agreement are underway.

New Bargaining Team

Our newly elected bargaining team is in place and the process of establishing demand priorities is rolling out across Ontario.

Representing the priorities of the membership is a fundamental responsibility of the bargaining team and the team takes this to heart. Team members will be visiting each college over the next few months, responding to member questions, discussing the bargaining process, and providing support for each Local’s demand-setting.

Revised Approach

This revised approach – an outcome of recommendations from the last round of bargaining – strengthens the connection between members and the bargaining team.

It helps build a better understanding of demands and collective agreement negotiations across the membership.

Establishing Demands

Establishing demands for bargaining is a three-step process. First is the pre-bargaining conference at which the bargaining team is elected. Local demand-setting is the second step of this process. Successful bargaining relies partly on having practical, realistic, and focused demands.

The final step is the provincial demand-setting meeting at the end of March. After that meeting, the bargaining team puts the demands into contract language proposals. The priorities established at the provincial demand-setting meeting guide the team.

From March through May 2012, the team’s priority will be to build strong arguments, with appropriate documentation to support our position at the bargaining table.

Communication

There will be regular communication from the bargaining team exploring key themes, which arose from the pre-bargaining conference in October. Locals at the pre-bargaining conference identified more immediate communication as a priority. Anticipate the integration of new communication tools to provide members with timely information.

Team members will be visiting Locals to listen to concerns and answer questions. The team looks forward to seeing you in person in the near future.

 Key Dates

November 2011 – February 2012

• Team members visit Locals to listen to concerns, answer questions, and assist with the demand-setting process.

March 31 2012 – April 1

• Provincial Demand-Setting Meeting

April 2012 – May 2012

• Team meets to put demands into contract language, set bargaining agenda and strategy

June 2012 – August 2012

• June 3 is the earliest possible date to give notice to bargain.

• Contract expires August 31 at midnight

Carolyn Gaunt (Co-Chair)

Carolyn Gaunt

Carolyn has more than a quarter century’s experience with our academic bargaining unit. Variously a steward, chief steward, and communications officer, she is currently president of Local 655 with 198 full-time faculty and 30-50 partial-load professors. One of the characteristics most valued by her membership is Carolyn’s ability to communicate directly and her willingness to confront difficult issues. She brings a strong understanding of bargaining processes and contract language to the co-chair position.

Currently teaching in the School of Business at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Carolyn has worked under both the counsellor and the professor classifications. Her course specializations include labour relations, collective bargaining, and organizational behaviour. She coordinates the Human Resources Management post-diploma program at the college.

Carolyn’s experience includes work with various union-management committees including workload monitoring, college employment stability, return-to-work, and the academic campus committee (unon-college committees); this includes working on both workload arbitration and grievance arbitration complaints. Carolyn’s academic background includes an MBA and doctoral level studies in advanced leadership. On a personal note, she is an avid gardener, spends time working with her husband doing home renovations, and enjoys relaxing with the family pets Harley, and Pai.

Ted Montgomery (Co-Chair)

Ted Montgomery

Ted Montgomery has been a teacher in the college system since 1973. Following a brief sessional appointment with Centennial College in Scarborough, Ted became a sessional and then full-time teacher at Seneca College. He has always taught in academic upgrading programs delivering courses in a wide variety of subject areas, including English, Social Sciences, Contemporary Society, Basic Science, and Cinema Studies. Ted has been president of Local 560 for 25 years and a member of 7 previous bargaining teams. He was also a member of the OPSEU Executive Board for two terms and the Chair of OPSEU’s Constitution Committee for three terms.

In addition to college activities, Ted has been a basketball coach and referee for many years and is currently the Vice-President of the Canadian Association of Basketball Officials. This past April, Ted was elected to serve as the Speaker of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

Ted says, “Local delegates have elected a strong team with a good balance of experience and new members. The team will be working hard from now until a settlement is reached. Our goal is to deliver a contract by August 31^st that the members will ratify. Look for some new and innovative approaches.”

Rod Bain

Rod Bain

This is Rod’s second time on a bargaining team. He is a Professor in the Traditional and Heritage Masonry Program at Algonquin College. Rod is a mason and carpenter by trade. After earning a diploma in Technological Education at Queen’s University, Rod began his teaching career at Algonquin College’s Perth Campus.

Rod is a steward with his local, where he is a member of the College Employment Stability Committee, a member of the Workload Monitoring Group, and serves as a certified member of the Perth Campus Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee.

Rod has always been a forceful and effective advocate and defender of the Collective Agreement rights for all faculty. His determination and tenacity have been invaluable both as a steward and as a campus organizer for the OPSEU Part-Time campaign. Outside of the Union and College duties, Rod organizes hockey for the students at his campus and is a hobbyist beekeeper. He looks forward to working with the team to help ensure our members get the Collective Agreement they deserve.

Gary Bonczak

Gary Bonczak

Gary is President of Fleming College Academic Employees, Local 352. His is involved in most of the union/management committees at the college and at the Provincial level he has been on the Joint Educational Qualifications Subcommittee for three terms. His is a Professor in the School of General Arts & Science and has been at the college for 31 years. His teaching encompasses Organizational Behaviour & Psychology courses. Well versed in all aspects of mediation, Gary is on the current Fleming roster of mediators & provides coaching in mediation training. An integrative style is his preferred method of bargaining; however, he is very adept at switching to distributed bargaining given the situation.

On a personal note, Gary has been with his wife for 24 years. He has two dogs that keep both him & his wife quite busy. Gary is an avid squash & tennis player. He has been a volunteer at the Peterborough YMCA for over 25 years, mainly involved in squash programming.

Lynn Dee Eason

Lynn Dee Eason

Lynn Dee started as a sessional Teaching Master at the North Algoma Campus of Sault College in Wawa. Within a few weeks of becoming full-time in 1984, Lynn Dee was involved in the first faculty work stoppage. Gaining a degree of control over workload through the Standard Workload Form showed Lynn Dee the profound influence of a bargaining team supported by a strong membership.

When the North Algoma Campus closed fifteen years ago, Lynn Dee began commuting between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie (220 km) along the shore of Lake Superior twice weekly. Lynn Dee serves both communities as Chair of the Sault Area Council and a representative for Local 613 on the Sault Ste. Marie Labour Council. She earned a Master in Education (Adult Education) degree from OISE and teaches computer technology, communications, and interpersonal dynamics courses in the Office Administration – Executive program in an accelerated format.

Lynn Dee serves as Local Vice-President and has been an active member of the Union College Committee and Workload Monitoring Group as well as newsletter editor. Lynn Dee’s activism is most apparent in her work with the Health & Safety committee where she works passionately to ensure obligations are met. Provincially, she serves on the Joint Grievance Scheduling and Health & Safety committees.

When not engaged in college or union activities, Lynn Dee listens to CBC radio, golfs, curls, and has been known to raise a moose calf or two in her backyard with her husband, Gord, an OPS member, and their Welsh terrier, Bran.

Benoit Dupuis

Benoit Dupuis

This is Benoit’s second time on the negotiating team. He started teaching at St. Lawrence College, Cornwall Campus in 1985 and transferred to La Cité collégiale when the college was created in 1990. Benoit has been a union steward, secretary, vice president and is now the president of his local. He has been on the College Workload Monitoring Group and a member of the College Employment Stability Committee and the Union College Committee.

Benoit is a professor in the Social Service Worker Program, where his teaching specialty is in counselling, case management, and crisis intervention. Benoit is also the chair of the Divisional Executive of the CAAT Academic Division and a member on the provincial Employer/Employee Relations Committee. These experiences have honed his problem-solving skills which his is bringing to the bargaining table.

JP Hornic

JP Hornic

JP Hornick is the Coordinator for the School of Labour at George Brown College and represents OPSEU Local 556 as a delegate to the Toronto and York Region Labour Council. She has been an active steward for the past decade. In the School of Labour she teaches labour studies courses, runs labour education workshops, and organizes the Labour Fair, a week-long conference that brings into classrooms over 75 speakers on unions and social justice issues related to labour.

JP’s work as a steward has been driven by her commitment to making positive change. For the past 20 years, she has worked as a trainer on LGBTQ issues, and helped to found the Positive Space campaign at George Brown. She’s also run workshops and training for other colleges and organizations, including the Toronto Police Service (TPS). Her role as a trainer with the TPS was as the result of a successful human rights lawsuit that challenged their existing policies and procedures.

Within the college sector, JP has actively fought to protect and expand the rights of our members, both within George Brown and system-wide. JP looks forward to communicating and working with our membership in the demand-setting and bargaining process, and representing our interests in this next, crucial round of negotiations.

Jason Alward,
Communications Assistant
Ontario Public Service Employees Union

“The work starts on Monday, October 17,” said Ted Montgomery and Carolyn Gaunt, elected as Co-Chairs of the CAAT Academic Bargaining Team. “Under the new legislation, actual bargaining cannot begin until three months before our current contract expires on August 31, 2012. However, our real work with the members begins now. We will engage directly with members every day between now and the time we sit down across the table with management.”

The following members were elected:

• Carolyn Gaunt, President, Local 655 at Cambrian College (Co-Chair)
  cbgaunt@eastlink.ca
• Ted Montgomery, President, Local 560 at Seneca College (Co-Chair)
  ted@opseu560.org
• Rod Bain, LEC, Local 416 at Algonquin College
  rodbainlocal415@gmail.com
• Gary Bonczak, President, Local 352 at Fleming College
  gbonczak@cogeco.ca
• Benoit Dupuis, President, Local 470 at Collége La Cité
  bdupuic620@rogers.com
• Lynn Dee Eason, 1st Vice-Presdent, Local 613 at Sault College
  ldeason@shaw.ca
• JP Hornick, LEC, Local 556 at George Brown College
  jphornick@gmail.com

Brothers and Sisters:

From now until the beginning of negotiations in June 2012 you have an opportunity to exercise your democratic rights as a member of your Union. With full participation and solidarity, demand-setting is one of the most democratic events in any union. It is your turn to have your say. In June 2012, negotiations for a new Collective Agreement will begin. To ensure the greatest effectiveness of this collective process, we need your input and participation.

We have started the process that will bring us to a new Collective Agreement. In the union movement, this process is known as pre-bargaining. Securing/exercising your democratic rights through participation in your local’s demand setting meetings can bring about tremendous beneficial changes in the Collective Agreement.

By the time you receive this Newsletter, your Divisional Executive will have requested a report from all the committee chairs outlining their recommendations for bargaining. The committees look after matters of concern that have a direct effect on you the membership.

They are the Joint Educational Qualifications Subcommitte; the Joint Insurance Committee; CAAT Retirees Group Insurance Advisory Committee; the Heath and Safety Coordinating Committee; the Employee/Employer Relations Committee; the Collective Bargaining Information Services Advisory Committee; the Joint Greivance Scheduling Committee; the In-Service Teacher Traiing Certificate Task Force; the Pension Trustees; the Sick Leave BuyoutCommittee; the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

The DivEx will have made a similar request to all Local presidents to outline their priorities for this round. The Union’s research staff will prepare reports on ideal language from other jurisdictions and analyze the economic environment. All of this will be added to the material collected since the last round of bargaining and will be provided in a resource booklet to the participants of the Pre-Bargaining Conference on October 15 and 16 in Toronto.

This year, for the first time, the bargaining team will be elected at the Pre-bargaining conference. Under the new collective bargaining procedures that were passed in June 2010 and ratified by the annual OPSEU convention in April 2011, the newly elected bargaining team and the Divisional Executive will provide help to your locals, if needed, during the Demand Setting process.

The collected pre-bargained conference material, along with the input received (work done/issues brought forth) at the pre-bargaining conference will be provided to your Local as resources for a productive local Demand-Setting meeting. At your local meeting you may bring forward any idea that will help your sisters and brothers achieve a better working environment.

How do you participate?

• Find out when your local is holding its local Demand Setting Meeting and mark it in your calendar.
• Contact your local steward or local executive in person, by email or by phone for help with wording and support for your demands.
• Encourage others to formulate demands, attend and participate in these meetings and support your demands.

The local Demand Setting Meetings have the following main objectives:

• Receive and vote on demands presented by the membership and the local. Demands that receive support from 50 per cent plus one of the members and the meeting will go to the Provincial Demand Setting Meeting in the new year. Your Local President will forward all the accepted demands to the Bargaining team and the DivEx for compilation and presentation at the Provincial Demand Setting Meeting.
• Elect delegates to attend the Provincial Demand Setting Meeting (unless you have already done so).
• Vote on the ranking of priorities for areas of the collective agreement. This ranking will guide your delegates in achieving members’ concerns, wishes and wants.

At the Provincial Demand Setting Meeting, delegates from the 24 Community Colleges will vote on the demands that have been presented by each local and standing committee and rank the priority of demands passed at the Provincial Demand Setting Meeting.

Your input at the local level is important in shaping the demands that will ultimately make it to the bargaining table and finally into the Collective Agreement. Ideally, demand –setting is one of the most democratic process in any union. Exercise your democratic right to be heard. Participate fully!

In Solidarity,

The CAAT-A Divisional Executive

Colleges have advised faculty members that classes will be continuing during the Support Staff strike. Our Collective Agreement requires that we continue to work, even if there are picketers slowing our way. You are expected to teach your classes as scheduled on your timetable.

What about crossing picket lines. What is expected of me?

When crossing picket lines, please do so safely and carefully. Be patient. Stop and talk with picketers. Take and read any literature they may have. Reading the Support Staff materials will assist you in answering any questions your students might have.

What is expected of me as a teacher if my students are late for class?

As with any exceptional circumstances, try to accommodate these situations as best you can.

What if I am asked to do work that is usually assigned to Support Staff?

Support staff work includes registering students, maintaining equipment in labs, etc.. If you are asked to do any support staff work or if you are reprimanded in any way for anything you do or do not do in respect of the strike, contact the union right away for assistance (opseu558@gmail.com or 416.694.2575).

If there is support staff work that is needed, or there is something broken that prevents you from doing your faculty work, report the situation to your manager. He or she will have to sort that out and find a way to do that work.

What if conditions become unsafe in the lab or in the classroom. What do I do?

If you see an unsafe condition in your lab, classroom, or in the area where you are working, report it to your manager. Remember, you have the right to refuse unsafe work.

My College is asking for volunteers to replace Support Staff members on the Health and Safety Committee at my campus. What should I do?

In the Colleges, the Health and Safety Committee is a multipartite committee of all the stakeholders in our place of work. As such it needs members from our two bargaining units to be able to function. Support Staff have perceptions and points of view on the Health and Safety issues that affect them that we may not be aware of. It is a multipartite committee and cannot function without Support Staff. So if you are asked to fill in, simply refuse.

On my-non teaching time, may I join the Picket Line?

When you are not teaching or working, you can join the picket line at your campus. You should report to the Picket Captain on duty and identify yourself and ask permission. Safety comes first: stay alert and follow the directions of the Picket Captain. If there are too few people to safely maintain the line, step aside and away from traffic.

I sit on different committees with representatives from Support Staff. What should I do if meetings are called for these committees?

If the input provided by Support Staff is important in the deliberations of these committees, you should present your case and ask for a postponement of these meetings until such time that Support Staff can participate in them. If they are committees where there is Support Staff work that is needed, report the situation to the manager. He or she will have to sort that out and find a way to do that work.

Paul Clarke

For only the second time in 32 years, Centennial College support staff member Paul Clarke is walking a picket line in front of the campus, gingerly crossing the street ahead of vehicles impatiently waiting to enter the college property.

“The first time I did it during the 1979 strike, it was more of a social thing: I got a chance to meet my coworkers at the college and to get to know each other,” Paul smiles, thinking back. “I was young then and didn’t have many expenses, so a strike was more of an adventure. Today, the stakes are higher.”

What Do Paul and His Colleagues Want?

Contrary to popular belief, this strike is not so much about money. The colleges’ support staff union is asking for a 3 per cent wage raise annually, while the employer is offering half of that. Striking over 1.5 per cent is hardly worth the effort. What the union wants most is to staunch the erosion of workers’ rights when it comes to their job security, work hours and benefits.

Ontario’s colleges want to claw back gains the union made in previous contracts with an eye to introducing more part-time workers at lower wages, as well as reduce the benefits of future employees. The quality of employment for future graduates of Ontario’s community colleges – some of whom will work in the college system – is looking grim. That’s why we’re here.

Full-time Workers are the Minority Now

When college support staff last walked a picket in 1979, there were 6,000 full-time employees at Ontario’s 24 public colleges and about 3,000 part-time workers. Today, there are 8,000 full-timers and 9,000 part-time support staff serving a much larger system. The trend is clear: full-time positions are under attack as the colleges scheme to introduce a more flexible – and disposable – workforce that costs less to administer in terms of wages and benefits.

Support Staff on the street

Union members know the stakes are high. In July, members voted 77 per cent in favour of strike action on September 1 if a new contract could not be hammered out between the employer and the union representation. That’s a strong buy-in by a group of people with mortgages, car payments and kids of their own in college and university. Let’s face it: It takes a lot of guts to confront your employer and withhold your labour as a form of protest.

So Here We Are On The Street

Support staff at Centennial College register students, work in the libraries, administer financial aid, maintain the computers and networks, oversee instruction labs, look after records and book sales, and do a host of other day-to-day tasks to keep the college running smoothly. Faculty can continue to teach, but with computer resources that need constant attention, they may be reduced to chalk-and-talk lectures. Slowly, college operations will grind to a halt as the problems continue to mount behind the scenes.

Is it worth it? Today’s students are savvy enough to know you can’t build a sound future by stitching together two or three part-time jobs, any of which can disappear at a moment’s notice. We owe it to the next generation of Ontario workers to stand up for our rights and our wages and benefits. If we don’t do it, who will?

It just goes to show you that even a work stoppage can make for an excellent teaching moment.