The Strike is Over!

Yes. It's over. The CAS members and the Board of Governors both ratified the agreement and they're going back to work. While some are disappointed about the agreement they have made several important steps on the road to properly recognize the CAS profs for the contributions they provide to the Laurier community.

I'll ask about the details of the plan but I think we can all take a deep sigh of relief that what began seven months ago, is finally come to an end.

As many of you know from the WLU website, extra class time has been schedules for us and I recommend everyone to visit to see the class schedules for their CAS profs and make sure you attend. There's one for the Waterloo campus and one for the Brantford campus.

Tentative Agreement Reached!

Around 5:00 am this morning the bargaining teams of the university and the CAS have found a tentative agreement!

What does this mean? Well, it could possibly mean settlement. I've asked Dr. Judy Bates, president of WLUFA, about the details of the agreement and if the CAS got some of the things they were asking for - she hasn't gotten word yet because Doug Lorimer, WLUFA's chief negotiator, collapsed in exhaustion.

Picketing will continue through the morning but instead of a rally today at noon in the St. Mike's parking lot, there will be a celebration instead - come out and celebrate! WLUFA's executive will meet while Doug Lorimer and James Butler (administration's chief negotiator) will work out a "back to work protocol" deciding how things will work out now after being upset by the strike.

The CAS bargaining unit will vote on the agreement through the weekend and, if successfully passed, that will be the end of the strike and the labour negotiations.

Following that, on Monday at the Senate meeting, extra class time will be added on Tuesday and Wednesday to have profs get in touch with their students. As for specific cases in classes, that, I believe, would be for the profs to work out.

Besides that - This is really great news!

Quiet Sit-In

Tomorrow negotiations resume and to show student discontent at how we were treated through this procedure the Student Solidarity Group is having a quiet sit-in outside the administration offices. No signs or fliers this time, this is a neutral sit-in at a symbolic place of power of an institution that has treated us poorly in the past two weeks.

If you are discontent about how both sides have been unresponsive - come by and sit around and study on the second floor of the Peters' Building outside the administration offices* between 10:00 and 4:00 on Thursday.

* We'd call for a sit-in outside of the CAS Strike Office in accordance to having this a neutral event, but it's private property and we'd get in trouble for loitering. If you have other places you can do sit-ins without getting in trouble, feel free to do so.

We need lots of students visibly, peacefully protesting on that day!

Letter to the Senators from the CAS

Dear Senators,

We welcome the opportunity to have our voices heard at this extraordinary Senate meeting. Our collective voice has spoken through our picket lines and our rallies. In that voice we have been expressing our determination to ensure an ongoing commitment to overall academic integrity at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Many individual CAS members desired to share their observations and insights with you. What will be read to you today is only a portion of the abridged versions of what was prepared for Senators to consider. (A longer document has been prepared and circulated to you.)

Let us now attend to their observations and insights.

One member asks: What does Dr. Blouw really believe?

In an interview published in the Cord Weekly, soon after he arrived on campus in Fall 2007, President Blouw stated: "Here I hope to create environments where people can excel - its faculty members, students and staff members. Because if you can create an environment where the greatest human potential can be realized, then you're really serving society well." We could not agree more: the hundreds of Laurier classrooms now sitting empty confirm the cost of ignoring Dr. Blouw's own advice.

Another member wants to reflect on how the administration hiring of Ph.D.s for CAS work, brings WLU credit in the Maclean's annual survey, but then the administration publicly dismisses the research work of these Ph.D.s. This tension calls into question how exactly the administration views the contribution of CAS members to the academic strength of Wilfrid Laurier's programs.

Regarding the difficulty of maintaining high academic standards in teaching when academic staff are under-resourced, one member remarks that:

The lack of proper office space and other facilities shows the administration's disregard for our well being. Having a 'space' ensures that one can carry out one's academic work to the best of one's ability. The general perception is that we are transient workers who move on to other jobs. In fact, some of us have been part of the Laurier community for years. Our poor salaries and work conditions are a reflection of the administration's perception of who they think we are, and what our contribution to academic quality really is.

Another member speaks of the unpaid work that so many CAS members do, so as to develop strong and effective courses, through syllabus preparation and external research saying:

What I want to say here is that my work as a 'part-time' faculty member is in fact very demanding. Before my contract even begins I design the courses I am going to teach and produce a course syllabus for each while making sure that I've got the course web page designed. Oh yes, I will also review and decide on textbooks for the course and order them.

I also think about my next research project. Will it be a comparative study of various forms of 'de-linking' currently being practiced in Latin America? I might have to travel to the region to collect data although I doubt the $100.00 expense account the university provides me will get me beyond Toronto, so I will ahve to apply for a research grant.

Still another member echoes this last thought about the amount of unpaid work we undertake in our commitment to the quality of education at Wilfrid Laurier University, pointing out that:

Like any competent professor, full- or part-time, I spend months preparing to teach a course and creating, honing, and refining my course outline. Months before a course starts, I'm doing data base searches and reading the most up-to-date literature. I examine myriad textbooks to determine which one will best suit the learning objectives of the course and the needs of students. I create relevant and informative course packages which can take many months even years to perfect.

And yet I cannot call myself a professor. According to my university, I am an instructor and what I do is absolutely and easily replicable. Apparently, in the eyes of the institution, I am credited with doing little more than standing at the front of the room reading from a textbook.

A member from Music offers a unique perspective for your attention saying:

Most CAS studio instructors in the Faculty of Music are nationally and internationally renowned orchestral and solo performers, composers, and music therapists. We are professionals at the top of our respective fields, with extensive training at the highest level. Our students rely on our years of training and experience to help them achieve the highest level of performance.

In that respect, it is extremely distressing to see our students face the possibility of having to perform their final juries, graduation reciatals, chamber concerts, and major ensemble performances without the benefit of the coaching they deserve as students of Wilfrid Laurier University. For the University to be proceeding with these events sends a clear signal to us as CAS instructors that they do not value the skills we bring to their students, and believe that the students are capable of completing the requirements of these courses on their own. It calls into question the Musical integrity of our students' work - and thsu the academic integrity of their program.

Our final speaker for today reflects a vision of WLU that remains committed to the highest quality educational experience.

We have heard about President Blouw's plea for a vision for Laurier. The vision of CAS members and of the students and full-time faculty that support our strike, embraces not intellectual division, but intellectual unity. Our vision seeks a university that provides a forum in which all scholars, full-time and part-time, are treated equally to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge. Our vision includes a full acknowledgment of our value to the Laurier community. Good academic work, excellence in teaching, commitment to the advancement of knowledge, is not the monopoly of a particular group of instructors.

We thanks you for listening to just a few individual voices of the CAS. We hope you keep them in mind as you deliberate today, and as you continue to contribute to the life of this academic community - to which we are all so deeply committed.

Contract Academic Staff, Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association
For more contributions from the CAS to Senate, please
check our website at: http://www.wlufa.ca

This letter was passed around before the Senate meeting and, while not read, was referenced in a comment made by Dr. Judy Bates. The meeting itself was enjoyable, many voices both from students and full-time faculty were raised in concern for the senior administrators by passing the power of the Senate in allowing students to drop their courses (taught both by part- and full=time faculty).

An Open Letter to Wilfrid Laurier University and the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association

Just in case you missed it, here is the Open Letter to Wilfrid Laurier University and the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association:

We, the undersigned, issue this letter as the official student representatives to the Senate and Board of Governors of Wilfrid Laurier University.

The recent labour dispute between Contract Academic Staff and the University has caused immense disruption, stress, and potentially negative long-term consequences for students in classes taught, assisted, or otherwise facilitated by these staff. These problems have been magnified by a consistent lack of communication, clarity, or transparency from either side with regards to the impact that this dispute will have and what plans there are to mitigate it. This is unacceptable.

Furthermore, the rhetoric issued by both sides has given students the distinct impression that they are being used as a bargaining chip and has consistently misrepresented the realities of the situation. This is disingenuous and insulting and must stop.

As student representatives, we take no side in the labour dispute; the student body is the third side, the side that has been consistently neglected throughout this entire process. Thus we demand a course of action that minimizes any further negative impact on students. We recognize that academic integrity has already been seriously compromised, and ask that any solution err on the side of the students. Pursuant to this, we have a number of demands:

1. Every student enrolled in a course with any element provided by Contract Academic Staff should be automatically granted a passing credit (not affecting their average) with a 25 percent refund commensurate to the 25 percent of classes missed
a. Students should also have the option to drop these courses with a 100 percent refund if they so wish.
b. Any student who has already dropped a course should be able to petition for either of these options.

2. Both the Wilfrid Laurier University Administration and the Faculty Association should immediately issue letters of apology for the stress and anxiety caused to students by the rhetoric and lack of communication during the past two weeks.

3. Whatever the University decides to do, the negotiation of that decision should be done in the open, in consultation with the students elected to represent students at that relevant governing body.

4. Furthermore, in light of the poor communication that has so far been in evidence, we expect communication of the final decision to be made in all of these ways.
a. The WLU Email ListServe
b. Press releases on the WLU Website
c. Advertisements in the Cord Weekly
d. Posters placed around campus
e. WebCT announcements.

5. Students should not be expected to hand in assignments due during the strike period or write exams in any class with elements provided by Contract Academic Staff, for the following reasons:

a. Students require class time and professor feedback in order to complete assignments and prepare for exams. It is unacceptable to expect otherwise.
b. In absence of a clearly defined and publicized course of action for students, it is perfectly reasonable to expect that they may not have completed the work.
c. There are students who do not want to cross picket lines. This is their right and must be explicitly respected.
d. Students have had absolutely no say in the decisions to collect course work as assigned.

6. Any course of action should minimize the number of students who are compelled to pursue petitions. Furthermore:
a. All petition fees in these cases should be waived.
b. Senate or Senate Executive must also approve any extraordinary petitions procedure.

7. No academic decisions should ever be announced to the community or made formal without the explicit input from and discussion by students.

If the above necessary actions are not taken, it will be taken as a clear indication that neither party in this dispute is sufficiently concerned with the interest of students at Wilfrid Laurier University.


Sincerely,

Josh Smyth, Senator
Bryn Ossington, Senator
Rachael Baker, Senator
Mark Ciesluk, Senator
Saad Aslam, Senator-Elect
Janice Lee, Senator-Elect
Paul Laanemets, Senator-Elect
Colin LeFevre, Senator
Culum Canally, Governor
Keren Gottfried, Governor
Matt Park, Governor
Jon Champagne, Governor-elect

Well spoken, I think every student will approve.

Laurier Milton

Apparently the university is looking to expand to new land donated to the university by the town of Milton. Ok... so the land is free. But a few simple questions:

Who will pay for the buildings? The professors? The administrators? The staff? The office equipment?

Why is the university looking to expand still when its this over expansion hurt it so badly in the past?

Is the university really having financial problems or can Max Blouw really shit gold?

Either way - why can't they just pay their CAS profs?

Three Words

It's about time!

The Student Union is amusing but not surprising. Back in the day of trying to prevent a strike - holding booths, attending dozens of classes, gathering the most successful petition in history (and then having it spit at by the administration), holding rallies, quiet sit in, and etc. The Student Union pretended that we are not here and that there is no problem. One of us was declined an audience with the Board of Directors before she was not "unbiased," and our warnings that have come true - the strike and the unfortunate results for all of our educations went ignored.

I guess things don't often disappear when you ignore them, huh?

Of course then, for over a week of canceled classes and picket lines the best the Student Union could say is "Play nice kids." Only afterward, when the strike prolonged from being uncomfortable to being scary, that they decided to actually do something... Only a month too late.

Of course, we support them all the way on this venture (though find it questionable as to their "neutral-activism"), better late than never I guess. Oh, but how typical is this of [student] politicians.

Back to Brantford on Monday

WLUFA is hosting a rally at Brantford on Monday at 1:30. Facebook-wise, there seems to be a big group attending, and a gang from Waterloo is going to be there. We've got three cars now and if you need a ride there, message me (Anatoly Venovcev) on Facebook or e-mail me at tolyv@hotmail.com. It would be good to have a good presence at their rally to show support, once again, for the Brantford people and organize a sister solidarity group there.

Excellent new video

Administration Invites WLUFA Back to the Table!

The administration's chief negotiator (Jim Butler) contacted WLUFA's chief negotiator (Doug Lorimer) and the talks are to resume on April 3rd!

It's a step in the right direction, but let me remind everyone that this isn't the end - only the beginning of the end. Picketing will continue until an agreement is reached and continued support is needed. If the line breaks, the administration will call off the negotiations. So hang strong, show support, stand in picket lines, inform, e-mail the administration - we must press on.

Remarkable Initiative

Another CAS support group formed on Facebook by individual initiative of two wonderful ladies calling for an end to the strike with a fair deal for the CAS. They have created a remarkable website that provides especially useful tools where you can simply input your name, press a button, and send an e-mail to the administration. You can find one for parents, students, alumni, and citizens to fill out and click away.

Send the administration your concern!

The Brantford Connection

Today, a small gang from the Student Solidarity Group went down to Brantford to inform the Brantford students who have been left extremely in the dark on the occasion. The Cord picked up a little bit on this action with a mention in todays update on the strike. I have got to say the experience was a very positive one and all three of us really enjoyed both the Brantford CAS and the Brantford students. All of us, on both campuses, students and CAS alike, share many of the same concerns with each other and it was great to hear some ideas and thoughts exchanged between the groups. Catherine, the creator of the "Students Trying to Piece Together the CAS Strike," was especially great in terms of her openness about the topic. I have nothing but high esteem for them down there.

We picked up some copies of their "The Sputnik" and brought it up to the strike office in Waterloo. An anonymous Brantford instructor wrote in a remarkable letter that summarizes some of our passion at the Student Solidarity Group. I'll quote it in full below:

"There has been some confusion around what students can do to interfere in the current labour negotiation process, the Sputnik should produce a special issue informing and educating students of what they can do.

You can do A LOT, but first you have to understand your stakeholder position, articulate your own interests clearly, and ruthlessly exercise the leverage your position gives you. Because it gives you A LOT of leverage.

If you paid your tuition, you contracted the university to provide you with a complete suite of educational resources: these include library privileges, computer access, AND INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES. The university then is expected to provide those services. If the computers went down, you would hold the university accountable. If the library went down, you would hold the university accountable. You have no contractual relationship with your instructors. Instructors only have a contractual obligation to you through the contract they signed with the university, and the university has allowed that instructional contract to expire. It does not exist anymore and should a strike or lockout occur, even the ghost of that old contract is done away with.

If they cannot provide you with the services you have paid for, your response should be: "Don't tell me your problems, and don't give me excuses: just as you demand that I fulfill my contractual obligations by paying you and not committing academic fraud (or else you will kick me out) I demand that you fulfill your obligations to me and get your damn house in order, and if you can't I demand my money back on a pro rata basis and we collectively will potentially hold you liable against damages: i.e. lost income caused by having a start summer work late."

The fact that they are contractually obligated to provide you with instruction, but they have been so incompetent as to be unable to do so is not your fault, and you should not have to suffer for their incompetence.

YOU HAVE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR YOUR INSTRUCTION. THE UNIVERSITY IS NOT PROVIDING YOU WITH WHAT YOU CONTRACTED IT TO PROVIDE. YOU SHOULD DEMAND, LOUD, LONG AND INSISTENTLY IN EVERY LOCAL MEDIA FORUM AVAILABLE THAT IT MET IT LEGAL OBLIGATIONS TO YOU, AND DEAL WITH ITS INTERNAL BUSINESS WITHOUT ALLOWING ITS INCOMPETENCE TO DO SO TO HARM YOU, ITS CLIENTS.

Before you publish anything like this, you will of course do due diligence and check these facts with the union and the administration, but I think if you can cut through the university's bullshit (it has a huge interest in you NOT educating your fellow students, paradoxically enough) I trust that you will find that they are absolutely correct.

Signed,

An instructor, who cannot reveal his or her name for fear of retribution."

Reaction from the picket

I was sent a reaction from the picket line. One of our CAS member took time to send in a email describing CAS sentiment about what is happening:

"I spent seven hours on the picket line yesterday, and I feel that I must share with you a few things about this whole strike situation:

1) None of us out there likes the idea of freezing on the roadside.

2) Spending time as street walkers isn't what we dreamt of the night after we defended our PhDs. We all feel displaced and would much rather be in our classrooms.

3) We teach because we want to share our passion with you, not because it is lucrative. If we wanted to be rich, we would have chosen a different career.

4) Also, the nature of our work is such that it never ends. Even though we are paid part-time, we spend most of our waking time thinking about our classes. No class is like another; no lecture is identical to the one last term. One of my colleagues told me it takes him at least six hours to prepare one fifty-minute lecture, and this is normal.

5) Quite apart from the lecture preparation, we also spend a lot of time just getting to Laurier every time we have a class. As part-timers, we don't know if we would be re-hired next term, so it doesn't make much sense to uproot our families and move to Waterloo. As well, many of us have other jobs at other locations in Ontario. I commute from Toronto three times a week; I take Greyhound because it is cheaper than driving and it also allows me to mark papers or prepare classes while getting there; on my teaching days, I spend six hours just traveling to and from Laurier. I meet a number of my colleagues on the coach: to be there, we all get up at 5 am after only 3 to 4 hours of sleep. I assure you: this does take some commitment. And no, Laurier doesn't pay for our commute or even for the GRT.

6) You ever wondered how your part-time profs earn money during the summer? Better not ask: PhDs serving tables at Wendy's is by far not the worst scenario.

7) Lastly, don't think that strike only impacts students. We lose our April salary, all of it. We also jeopardize our chances of being re-hired next year.

As far as I am concerned, strike pay is not even going to cover my daycare expenses, which is why I can only afford to picket once a week, doing two shifts back to back. Which brings me back to point one. I do not like being cold. I do not like being called a full-time whiner. I do not strike because I don't feel like teaching. I did count on the April money, especially so because I will have no income over the summer. But I do support the strike because, regardless of whether I am re-hired next term or not, my colleagues are wonderfully warm, knowledgeable, hard-working people who deserve to be treated as professionals rather than casual workers and who depend on their wages to feed their children, so job security is probably as important for them as fair wages. "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise."

Why do I write all this? Because I had a chance yesterday to see that many, if not most of you, understand and support us, even if you do not know all the details. Yes, there were some students who turned away from us, or even muttered insults, but they were only few. I cannot start telling you how heart-warming it was when you honked, or shoved hot coffee into our stiff hands, or dropped off steaming pizzas, tomato soup, or home-made cookies. Or simply walked the line with us for half an hour. This means a lot to us, and for all this I want to tell you my sincere, heartfelt THANK YOU!"

Thank You From the SSG

I would like to thank the residents of the Bricker apartments for putting "We *heart* CAS" on their window so that it is visible from one of the picketing locations. It's great to see other students taking personal initiative in creative ways to aid in this crisis.

I'd like to urge everyone - from any year, to put similar messages of support in their residences, apartments, homes or other places of residence. If you wish, WLUFA fliers for such purposes are available at the Strike Office at 255 King St. Unit 6.

Fiscal Mismanagement

WLUFA news release:

Laurier’s “Large Deficit” Show Hides Declining Cost of Salaries

Dr. Max Blouw, the new President of Wilfrid Laurier University, in a number of public statements, has expressed concern about Laurier’s financial deficit. He has indicated that he intends to address this deficit through economies in salaries paid to Laurier employees.

The present impasse with the Contract Academic Staff which has led to a strike is just the first round in President Blouw’s plan.

At the request of Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association, Dr. Bill Salatka, Professor of Accounting in Laurier’s School of Business and Economics, has undertaken an analysis of the University’s published financial statements for 2002 - 2006.

“There are at least two important aspects to what the published financial statements show,” Dr. Salatka says.

“By transferring money out of the General (or Operating) Fund into capital and other funds, the University Administration has “created” a large deficit for 2006 in the General Fund. The University was not overall in a net deficit position in 2006 (the last year for which there are published financial statements available).”

Dr. Salatka says, “This deficit of $62 million in 2006 is the result of cumulative transfers out of the General Fund amounting to $39 million since 2002.”

This is a deficit created by the Administration.

A second significant aspect that undercuts the Administration’s claims relates to the total salary bill for all employees (administrators and managers, full-time faculty, contract academic staff, librarians, non-academic staff, et al.), which is a major cost for universities. At Laurier, however, the total salary cost has been declining in relation to total revenues.

“Total salaries, as a percentage of student fees, have dropped approximately 9% since 2002,” Dr. Salatka says.

Also if you compare total salaries as the cost of total revenues, total salaries have actually declined from nearly 53% in 2002 to just under 47% in 2006.

The Administration claims that the deficit means it cannot move to resolve the dispute over CAS seniority and compensation. Yet the analysis of the financial statements indicates that salaries have been a declining portion of University revenues. The deficit arises from past administrative decisions leading to transfers out of the Operating Fund.

This spring the collective agreements for two other major employee groups are coming up for renewal – the WLUFA full-time faculty and librarian collective agreement and the WLUSA agreement for non-academic staff.

“Creative accounting” is being used as a smokescreen to hide the Administration’s real agenda,” says Dr. Judy Bates, President of WLUFA.

Woops... You can't win when you don't have math skills on your side.

Support Rally, Friday March 28th.

There will be another rally on Friday, March 28th, starting at noon from St. Michael's parking lot. Once again, there will be CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers) representatives from across Canada.

Come in great numbers to support our professors!

What We Can Do

If you have been following up in the blog and the news media - you know that what's at stake here isn't a few hundred dollars, a question on who will teach what course, and a few credits. This fight is about the respect and dignity of 365 people on their right to be academics, it is about Laurier being competitive in terms of education and research, and it is about what it really is really to be a university professor. In essence, it is a fight against the larger trend that's been happening the west; a fight to keep university a university and not a glorified and costlier version of High School. Everyone can have a part to play this, students especially when it is we who are the largest and most influential body at this university. Here's what students can do to help the CAS profs:

• Say a kind word or honk to the picketers.
• Wear a pin, if you don't have one, ask the picketers.*
• Grab an information pamphlet from the picketers and read it, get informed, then inform somebody else.*
• E-mail or call the administration saying that you're not happy with this strike (all the e-mails are to the right of this text).
• Send them an automated e-mail.
  
• Hang a WLUFA poster on your door and/or window.*
  
• Bring coffee, donuts, Tim bits, or water to the picketers.
• Write letters to the editor of The Cord and The Record.
• When you're studying, sit down in the hallway leading to the administration offices while clearly displaying a pin or a poster in solidarity and just study.
• Attend rallies and demonstrations.
• Grab a picket sign and join the picketers.*
• Pass the link to this page to someone else to read.

* Pins, posters, pamphlets, and picket signs can all be found at the CAS Strike Office at 255 King St. N. Unit 6, the "Gemini Jetpacks" building right by "Get Stuffed."

With continued student support and pressure put on the administration we will show the part-timers have our backing and the administration is all alone in this fight. Then, they would have no other alternative than to agree to what WLUFA has asked and end this strike.

Fiscal responsibility

The difference between the two sides would roughly be the same as one year of the president's salary.

The latest WLUFA update indicates that the administration won't move despite there is so little. They are still not willing to compromise. They are jeopardising academic careers of both the students and the CAS.

Jim Butler and Sue Horton have awarded themselves $40,000 wage increases in the past, and are quibbling over a few hundred for equally qualified people. If there really is a debt incurred by the university, shouldn't it be payed by the people who made it? The CAS didn't, but the administration is spending more and more on capital and themselves, and forces the CAS and students to pay by lack of services.

Hearing rumours of cost overruns from buildings in Brantford of 7 million dollars, where are they getting the money? Shouldn't those who do this pay for it? Should I make my friends pay for my VISA bill?

Some Really Tough Profs

After two days where I clocked in about six hours total standing on the picket line, I've got to say - Laurier has some really tough profs! I stood on the picket line four times in anywhere between one and two hour shifts and then had to scurry back for organizational and planning duties. But our profs - they had to be out there in the cold for four hour shifts and some of them are old enough to be my grandparents. That takes endurance and that they have a lot of.

They're doing it for the right thing too. By now you've seen what the administration has proposed and what they asked to be competitive, and you should know that the Faculty Association told the administration where they can reach a compromise. Of course the administration refused to budge even when the proposed pay increase would cost them half of the combined wages of the people sitting on their negotiating team (less than a million dollars in a university whose revenue is 159 million) and on the seniority which is free and sensible. In fact, since this whole thing began the administration moved on their original offer by a grand total of 30 dollars... talk about inability comprise.

Now, through sheer pigheadedness the administration leaves students and profs hurting while they barricade themselves deeper inside their offices in the Peters Building. We managed to storm that bastion on Thursday, though we got nothing but Sue Horton's "fair and responsible" talk that, if you check the administration's website, seems to become more and more their mantra their chanting up there. Apparently, fair and responsible does not mean - realistic or competitive. After six months of this backtalk and mediation that took place from Monday morning to Wednesday at 6:00 am, it's no wonder that our part-time faculty is out on strike - they had no choice, as one of my profs eloquently explains in the video.

You've already heard how fair, productive, and respectful labour negotiations are human rights, however, there's a simpler issue at play here - the dignity of Laurier as a competitive institution and its ability to attract a competitive workforce. With the petty sum offered on the table Laurier is still lacking in many regards (among the biggest is job security and salary grid) to other universities, this will not attract new professors to come here. In fact, they will leave, which will devalue the quality of education provided here and worth of the degrees students are working hard to achieve. Already, since last year, I know of four profs that worked here and left since then. One of them works at UW, others in Toronto and other places. What kind of value does the "Canadian Experience" provides when it can't even keep profs from going to other institutions after they accumulated the experience needed to get a job there? In this scheme of things Laurier is missing out and not being competitive.

There really is no fairness in the current system they are trying to change - not in the salaries compared to other universities, not in salaries compared to full-time faculty (the most junior ones make almost twice what they do), not in salaries compared to the time they taught at Laurier, not in benefits they receive from the ones they deserve. The system is unfair, period. It treats academics - who do research, community service, and teaching, like chattel. It gives them a false title of "part-time," as a misnomer for doing much, much more. It then refuses to budge over peanuts.

As a long term goal, both for the quality of education Laurier provides and the future of the academia, the professors are fully justified in their actions - they have every right to withdraw their services from the people who do not wish to fully compensate for them. Now, they brave the winter weather to stand in picket lines for what they support and I am proud to be with them, walking the picket line, showing that the student body cares, and I urge everyone - even for ten minutes, to join the picket lines and help fight the human injustice inflicted upon the CAS.

Academic Credits

For all those who haven't checked, the university posted information to might what happen with our terms.

Now why didn't they have this up two weeks ago?

No, it's not negotiating in bad faith about speculating about the repercussions of a strike.

The CAS Final Request

The rally was great! Lots of amazing student support.

I also talked to a few of the CAS negotiators in the picket lines today and asked them, to the concern of many students, what was the CAS final request and if I could share it. I got this information from Jonathan Haxell (Anthropology and Archaeology department) and with permission of Judy Bates, the president of WLUFA, I can share it with all of you.

Basically, the CAS, on Tuesday, held a meeting and decided that they will ask for three things:

1) An increase in pay somewhere between 6,400 and 6,600. Which would put them above the minimal CAS wage of Western, Guelph, and Toronto (not UW).
2) Graduated income system - so people starting out in teaching a course would get less than people who have been doing it for many years.
3) Better seniority system that's not just applicable to a particular course, but spills over a little bit into the department in which they teach.

They agreed that a win on one of those points and a partial win on another would have them agree with the administrations offer. The administrations offer gave them none of that. No graduated income, no better seniority system, and the wage increase to only 6,211 (the 3% improvements are there as a regular thing of collective agreements to counter inflation/cost of living). How very, very disappointing.

Also, in our conversation, Jonathan Haxell said that the administration did move at the bargaining table on their final offer. Do you know much they moved? 30 dollars. Yep. From 180 to 210 in six months. Also, very, very disappointing.

Oh well, I'll see you all on the picket line.

Rally Tomorrow

Tomorrow (March 20th) if you have time, come by the Strike Office (255 King St. N. Unit 6, right by Get Stuffed), at 11. We, the students, will walk through the campus and gather as much student support as possible. Then, we'll go to St. Michael's parking lot by 12:00 and till 2:00 there will be a rally from all sorts of supporters, both part-time faculty, full-time faculty, staff, students, and supporters from other universities.

Come out and support, they need our help!

A "Fair and Responsible" Offer

Ladies and Gentlemen - Max Blouw's own words:

I believe Laurier’s final offer is fair and responsible and takes into consideration both the short- and the long-term well-being of our students, staff, full-time faculty and contract academic staff. The university’s final offer recognizes the need for Laurier to be competitive with respect to the compensation of its CAS members. It also focuses on ensuring academic quality and the ongoing viability of Laurier by acknowledging the budgetary and other challenges we face.

Key words are bolded.

So what was their final grand offer. That was obviously very competitive and recognized the value part-timers gave to Laurier. Well it was... 3.5%... oh and no increase in job security. Do the math now - 6,001 x 1.035 = 6,211. Compare that with other universities. That's after six months of negotiating, twice as long as it should, and nearly non-stop negotiations on Monday and Tuesday until 6:00 am in the morning today.

That's not an offer - that's a slap in the face! It is the opposite of keeping Laurier competitive or providing academic quality or, for that matter, caring about the concerns of the students! It says just how poorly they think of our part-time faculty and they have every right to be on strike.

As for the "challenges we face" - I heard of those, and those are very valid challenges. However, that's no excuse on dumping the brunt of those challenges on already the most overworked and underpaid individuals on our campus. It's neither fair nor responsible.

Ladies and Gentlemen - my own words:

Hypocrites.

Key words are bolded.

Strike!

As of 6:00 am this morning our part-time faculty hit the picket lines.

So Max Blouw, within his first seven months in office got a labour action his hands... sad. Information on the legal obligations of students is posted on the Laurier website.

You're under no barriers to continue your classes with your full-time profs. The representatives of the CAS would also like to say that any student that wishes to join them on the picket line, can. I'll be there. But whether or not you choose to, is up to you. Their new office is at 255 King St. N. unit 6.

Tuesday

Whatever this day will bring - we'll keep on fighting till the end.

Quiet sit-in in the hallway leading to the administration offices today between 10:00 and 4:00 - feel free to come and leave at any time.

A Bit More Math

This is my (Anatoly's) own tinkering based upon the previous post.

Our part-time faculty gets 7.8 million from the administration for earning them 52 million.

They teach a third of the courses, so in total the university is getting 156 million (this is rounding down from tuition fees and government subsidies and excluding donations both big and small).

So 7.8/156 is five percent (5%) of the university's total income.

They're asking for a plan that will shift 1.5 million more to them - so the university will spend 9.3 million on the part-time faculty.

9.3/156 is 5.96 percent, let's round up to six. They're arguing over a percent?


And here's something more - higher pay does not correlate with higher tuition (per 0.5 arts credit):

Laurier (pays 6,001 per half credit course): 512.25
Western (pays 6,226 per half credit course): 452.10
Guelph (pays at least 6,356 per half credit course): 457.00
Waterloo (pays 6,708 per half credit course): 520.00
Toronto (pays at least 6,275 per half credit course): 522.60 -555.80
York (pays at least 7,195 per half credit course): 527.80
Queen's (pays at least 6,741 per half credit course): 457.90

Stance on Strike

We have reiterated this many times but for the record let it be done so again:

No, we do not support a strike.

We support our part-time faculty.

Review of Administration’s Response

After reading and analyzing the administration’s counter-website, I have to describe it by one word – disappointing. I’d give them an “A” for effort, though beyond that I wouldn’t substitute their grade for even what I have in French right now.

The moment you click on it, it jumps out at you as more of the same sterile hogwash they have been trying to pour down our throats in their statements to The Cord in the past – “We care about our students and we’re trying to do the best we can to resolve this situation.” Some sentences seem to be recycled from the stock mass e-mail they have been shooting out to anyone who dared to even e-mail in a valid concern. Further they make no effort of trying to address the real issues that concern students – our tuition, our grades, and our profs in exchange to simply shoot off noise in full apathy of the issues that trouble us.

Once you get deeper into their website you encounter the sort of loopy, closed-circuit logic you might hear on the Fox News channel if you’re a fan of painful American television. It’s the sort of logic that only makes sense if you’re running on six shots of whiskey at two o’clock in the morning. It even claims to provide “factually-based information” – an echo to Fox News that offers such fair and balanced news that they have to remind you of that fact before and after every commercial break.

Their website contains a massive contradiction – their claims to the value of the CAS workforce butt up against in how little care they actually show about their input by stating how their job is basically delineated to be mere plugs in helping “the university meet unexpected increases in demand for particular courses and/or programs.” This is exactly what one of the problems WLUFA has with the administration – the use (and abuse) of a flexible workforce to fill in the holes that might arise without due compensation and while providing not a thought to their job security by freely admitting that their applications won’t be considered until the very last moment without seniority. Maybe they should be honest and admit that they value the CAS primarily for the amount of money they save them. If anything, the level of value the administration places on its CAS workforce is about the same as the value the Chinese military places on its foot soldiers.

With this, they also overlook how the CAS do not “reduced teaching loads” of the full time faculty, but in fact enhance them by forcing them to serve more time on hiring committees for the CAS labour force due to their unwieldy system of seniority. They overlook the extra burden their money-saving scheme places on full-time faculty.

Another contradiction arises when they fully agree that there are many CAS who are recently-graduated Ph.D.s and academics looking to get into full-time positions (who also sit on committees) while claiming that their role and responsibility is 100% teaching. It is impossible to get a full-timed position without the service on committees and the research, which the administration seems to deny that many CAS even do, let alone supply them with time and research grants while freely accepting the benefits that comes from their research. While being hopeful and open to CAS seeking full-timed position, they wilfully deny them the tools to achieve so. While claiming that their job is 100% teaching, they also offer (a pitiful) amount to help with their research. This is hypocrisy in action. Even with their closed-circuit logic, the 100% teaching idea fails to account for the research needed to keep classes fresh with updated information of the developments in that particular subject area – a key point in keeping Laurier’s education competitive.

Further, they overlook many key tidbits in these negotiations – like, despite the wish for 33% of the Laurier faculty to be CAS, 65% of the communication studies department is staffed by part-timers. They make no notice on how they can address that. They also repeat their claim on the “standing offer” of meeting to bargain more often with the CAS negotiating team – a noble offer, even though through the history of these negotiations they have been incompetent in their bargaining (case and point – it look them two hours to prepare with the conciliator last Friday) and they fail to acknowledge that the CAS team is busy conducting their lives as full-time instructors, even though they fail to admit that too.

Finally, the biggest insult to the intelligence of an average student comes from their chart comparing salaries of Laurier and other universities. To starters, they’re using data of the 2006-2007 year – last time I checked we were living in 2008. For a real comparison, we must think that other universities are paying now and will be paying in the future in order to stay competitive – there’s no point in using old data to argue your point. Then, they fail to add the HCSA and other benefits to the total summary while freely adding on the 4% they fork over to the CAS right now. Then, they list distant (or brand new) universities like Trent or Nipissing with whom Laurier does not need to compete since they are too far for commuting travel. Then, they (deliberately?) ignore UW and how, for just a fifteen-minute walk, it offers their profs 700 dollars more at least (in the arts) for teaching the same stuff or how their grad students make more than our Ph.D. profs – the numbers are listed on their faculty association’s website. Finally – they neither list nor provide links to other benefits like job security, office space, large class subsidies, professional reimbursement, research grants, tuition benefits, and etc. that are offered at other universities; which is simply disingenuous when you’re trying to make a valid comparison between Laurier and other universities. Lastly – they ignore the real issue at stake of people trying to make a living, especially when doing all the things full-time faculty are doing while getting paid almost half as much.

Are you furious at them, yet?

As I said, this ploy by the administration is petty in its attempt to catch up to the information victory we and WLUFA achieved in the past weeks. Their hollow words do not address the key student concerns nor offer valid arguments for why should they continue to treat the part-timers like they have been. It’s a shameless ploy that only displays the disconnection they have with the concerns of the average student. It is the faculty that has been upfront to talk to us about it through these negotiations especially when Herbert Pimlott, the Media Relations executive of WLUFA, sacrificed his lunch break to eloquently address our concerns in the concourse on Friday. No administrator has done that, not with this website, not in the concourse, not through sacrificing a lunch break for mere students. By their respective actions, I think we see who is more honourable and deserving of our full support in these negotiations.

The Joy of Sue

I think they said the same thing on the Titanic:

"we will work absolutely with your interests in mind"

So says Sue Horton here, here, and oh, here... about the issues that concern us the most. Has anyone been following up in The Record? Maybe I'm missing out on something. Before I started doing this, I was not quite sure how to react to Sue Horton or why did most faculty members really dislike her. A little bit of her own words can always clarify that statement... you know... stuff about "our" interests in mind and how they are "front and centre."

Well Sue here are our interests - give our part-time profs what they deserve, now. Right, that's settled it then, expect to see an update on the WLUFA website how they have concluding bargaining, beer at the pub at 6:00. Oh? That hasn't happened yet. Odd... well ok then, moving along - there's always the quality of our education they should consider (since you know, we're stupid and don't know better). Well our education falters under the current deal when some departments, like Communication Studies, can barely man all their courses - so we should pay our profs more in that scenario. Then there are the interests of the full-time faculty (I see "Full-timers support the CAS" on every single door I walk past), staff (the ones who strongly support WLUFA), alumni (from whom we've gotten encouraging e-mails), donors, and community members. Well, I don't know about these mysterious donors and community members but the support of the entire campus for the part-timers cause kinda weights the balance in their favour, y'know... just a tad. If you are ignoring what we say then you are not being "cognizant" of your "roles and responsibilities" as an administrator. (You're also not being "cognizant" in your math skills by ignoring to add health and other benefits as well as to account for the current academic year when comparing Laurier's pay to that of other universities but more on that later).

Moving on:

“It’s like high-stakes poker,” explains Sue Horton, VP: Academic. “You want to make your best possible case before you fold. And everyone wants to calculate it right; no one wants to miscalculate in those last minutes.”

Hold on a sec... you're saying that 365 people fighting for their livelihoods to afford shoes, socks, and gas for their cars is... a game. That is beyond mere slip of words - it shows the pompous nerve of this woman who is gambling with peoples lives by equating it to something one does in a stuffy jacket in some secluded room in Vegas. The poker chips are hundreds of people who have suffered under the previous regime and led our education to suffer and it's all a game? Wow... Sue certainly is a classy lady. Maybe high-stakes poker isn't quite her game in this situation - it's Russian roulette and she's holding the trigger toward the heads of the CAS while they're frantically try to gather up some scraps before the right bullet finds them.

Finally, to add an asinine cherry to the icing of insult upon the sundae of injury, here's what one of Laurier's alumni (you know, the sort that she cares about), received when she showed her concern to one of her favorite profs:

Thank you for your email. I am happy to tell you that Dr. Haxell has a full time appointment this winter. I expect your time at U of T is giving you a good understanding - the part-time faculty at U of T also do not have permanent offices even though U of T is better funded than Laurier. We are working hard to reach a fair and sustainable agreement, and thank you for your input.

And then a little bit later, another e-mail:

My apologies. I should have written Prof Haxell not Dr Haxell.

Yep... so let's summarize - Dr. Haxell is part-time full-timer, woo! He gets paid a bit more and he can't go on strike. Congrats... oh but it ends in the fall. U of T's part-time faculty's treatment sucks also - that means we're not as bad! (Via Horton-logic: Just because Nike has sweat shops too, Wal Mart's sweat shops aren't bad.) "We will work absolutely with your interests in mind." Oh and since he doesn't have his Ph.D. (and its true) and since it doesn't matter that he worked here for 18 years, we should still make sure to not call him "Doctor"... in case he'll get offended.

Wow... The nerrrvvveeeee of this woman. And that's the person dealing with this situation? Fortunately, she won't be around for much longer - she's "retiring"... to academia. After this petition, we can start a new one to Max Blouw - to rehire her as a CAS worker. We'll be nice and ask WLUFA to invite her to their union.

The Strike Vote has Passed

From the WLUFA website:

The CAS Strike Authorization ballot was completed today.

89.4% voted in favour of authorizing the WLUFA executive to call a strike if necessary.

The teams will be in mediation on Monday March 17th and Tuesday March 18th. The Bargaining Unit will be in a legal position to strike as of 12:01 am on Wednesday March 19th.

Now, before anyone panics let it be emphasized - this does not mean there will be a strike. It only gives the executive power to call for one if mediation on the 17th and 18th fails. If anything, this vote says that a strike may be averted because it puts more pressure on the administration to settle. Also, look at that number and what it is saying - there are 365 CAS/part-time profs now at Laurier and 89.4% are fed up with the way they are being treated by the administration, so much so, that they are willing to do the most drastic labour action they can to fight for their livelihood. If all 365 of them voted, 326 of them are fed up with their working conditions to that point - that's a lot of our profs very, very upset.

It's paramount now that we stand behind them in this time of need and much still depends on us, the students, who have a big stake in these negotiations - we must pressure the administration to settle, the profs need our support. So, even if it's for a few minutes, show up to our demonstration on Monday 17th at noon - it will be leaving from the Dining Hall, concourse, and the Science Building atrium to gather in the quad outside of the Fred Nichols Campus Centre by about 12:15-12:30. We need more people there to show that Laurier stands united behind the part-timers!

Do the Math

From Herbert Pimlott, Media and Public Relations executive of WLUFA, a little math lesson:

There are 1300 classes taught by CAS.

In those classes, the average amount of students is 49 per course.

Let's say 40 students, since some classes in the music department are more individualized.

40 x 1300 = 52,000 "bums in seats" in CAS classes.

Each student pays 507.35 dollars per half credit course. Let's say 500.

500 x 52,000 = 26,000,000 (26 million) dollars from students taking CAS classes.

The government subsidizes the same amount (actually more). So 26,000,000 x 2 = 52,000,000 (52 million) dollars.

A CAS person makes 6,000 dollars for teaching a classes, there are 1,300 classes. So - 1,300 x 6,000 = 7,800,000 (7 million) dollars.

52,000,000 - 7,800,000 = 44,200,000 (44.2 million) dollars, and that's rounding down. That's what the administration makes from CAS profs. Where is the rest of that money going?

The current CAS proposal will shift 1,500,000 (1.5 million) dollars to them. So the administration will still have 42,700,000 dollars... and they are refusing to agree to that?

What can you do?

Dear students,

Don't panic. Don't fret. Fear is not good for the soul.

The feeling of powerlessness is what drives us into apathy. When we let ourselves think for one moment that we can be pressured into being afraid, then we start shifting into that dangerous territory where we lose what we have. Right now, we have a negotiation that is moving at a turtle's pace, and an administration who won't release details on what will happen to us.

What exists here at Laurier is a strong community. Whether it is an issue like the Hawk, supporting our amazing sports teams, ecological responsibility, a stance on the war, the creation or maintenance of a club, the election of WLUSU representation, or any other undertaking, we come together in a unique fashion. We often rely on each other. This is where our strength lies.

We need to demand two things:

1. Honest answers about what will happen with our term if strike or lockout happens.
2. A speedy resolution where CAS will be valued.

The administration needs to hear from us. Send emails, call them, send written letters, drop by and see them... Do remember to always stay respectful in your requests. It is important that we are taken seriously.


There will be a peaceful demonstration on Monday (heck, I am even bringing my three-year old son!). It will be leaving from three locations at noon:

1. The Science Atrium
2. The Concourse
3. The Dining Hall

We will walk about, and hopefully gain momentum. We will congregate in the Quad. We will have cameras on hand, with local and maybe even national media coverage.

I hope this empowers you. We want students to see that we are important, and that we are stakeholders in this. Without us, there would be no Laurier.

Dr. Horton, you don't scare me

Dear Students,

Here is a small piece of truth:

The administration can choose any resolution for our credits that they may desire. One common one is to grant everyone a "P" (pass). The implications of this are not ideal as it does devalue our degree, and any work that we may have done. A few other options exist and every academic facility in our position that I have read about has come to some sort of resolution for class-time lost due to labour disputes.

Dr. Horton's comment in the Cord outraged me. After a week of trying to explain that "losing" our terms wasn't likely, and demanding the administration for an answer, she attempts to scare us! You can't make us "lose our semester" due to a labour dispute. This isn't the answer we were looking for or the one we deserve.

Dr. Horton, I Don't Buy It. You have to do better for us than that.

Is this the rearing of the force that the WLUFA negotiating team has been up against? Is this a pitiful tactic to draw support away from the CAS? Is this administration really going to make us pay for the damage that they have done, e.g., punish us?

Students, be outraged. If they think that we are so simple minded as to not see through this, then they had better reconsider the true value of the Laurier student. They are training us up to be some of the best thinkers on the planet, and well, here we are, actually thinking and evaluating critically.

Fellow students, if the issue with the CAS doesn't make you angry, then this abuse of power should. They hold all the cards when it comes to our time here at Laurier, but making us lose our term is one thing that they cannot, and won't do.

Laurier administration,

What will you do if some of us have ethical issues with crossing a picket line? Will you penalise us for evaluating, thinking critically, and making an ethical decision by failing us?

York University faced a similar issue, and decided that they couldn't penalise students who in good faith could not cross a picket line. I challenge you to do the same for us.

Also, when are we going to get some answers from you? We rely on you for keeping our university a safe, sane, and reliable place. All I feel right now, is scared, nervous, tense, and a lack of confidence that we will be at all protected by those who have the power to do so.

Sue Horton on our Courses

So after being unresponsible, being irresponsible, being downright dishonest. We get one tiny bit on inkling from the administration of what might happen if our part-time faculty goes on strike. From this week's article in The Cord:

“I’ve been through strikes at other universities and there is inconvenience,” explains Horton.

“It’s annoying, it causes delays in things but ultimately the students are our paramount concern here. We do not want to have students losing their academic credits ... so we will work absolutely with your interests in mind.”

Her dismissive attitude toward human beings fighting for their livelihoods aside... you know, that minor little bit about the "inconvenience" of profs not having enough to afford the basic necessities for life and her typical promise of "best interests" when the administration has done nothing but stagnate these negotiations, refuse to compromise, oh and lie to us on several occasions right through their teeth (like about the implications of the conciliator coming in). Look at the bold emphasized phrase - students losing their academic credits.

This is the first bit of information she gave us on what will happen and there it is - we might lose our credits if they go on strike. We didn't say it - she did! Behold the wonders of this relic of the Rosehart regime, it's a wonderful thing that Dr. Max Blouw sacked her to the symbolic position of the grand old lame duck of the administration. I can see why our faculty hates her.

In better news, one of the awesomest supporters created a youtube video, it's worth a watch and a share with everyone:

Strike Vote Today

Today was the day. In fact, tonight was the night. The CAS would have gone into a meeting understanding one thing about their reality, and left perhaps moving on to another.

What everyone needs to understand is that this is just another step in the process and by no means a reason to panic or think that anything has changed. This vote may or may have not put them into strike position. This doesn't mean that strike will absolutely happen next week, but it means that if they have strong enough support, they could. This also doesn't mean that there isn't the chance that Laurier won't lockout. This is, and has always been an option as soon as the "No Board" report is delivered.

This is now our chance to move. We can use this time to act. I do still believe that the students can apply pressure to motivate action on the behalf of the administration. We have always proven that we can inspire movement, and I think we can inspire more. Come to the general demonstration on Monday, March 17th. This is a key day: a day of mediation. Let's make noise, and show our outrage in an extremely visible way.

Terre

Strike vote, Tuesday. Strike, March 19th?

Dear all,

I am writing a general letter again, and it is with great concern for all of us. When I say this, I mean not only us students, but also the CAS who will be poised to strike in the next week.

As the subject of this note indicates, due to the lack of progress in negotiation, the CAS will holding a strike vote next week, Tuesday. It is at this time that we must all remember that strike is not a pleasant choice. When workers go on strike, the first 3-4 days are unpaid before strike pay starts. Strike pay is only a percentage of a regular wage, and their regular wage is already a raw deal. The CAS members are our teachers, but we have to remember that they are people, home-owners, tenants, parents, spouses, people with real life worries. We stand to suffer in our education, but they are fighting for their livelihood.

Even with this vote, the administration is also in position to lockout the CAS. This is a nerve-wracking time for us, but it is a scary time for the CAS.

In light of this, WLUFA responded to our questions and concerns after every twist and turn. It was with great disappointment that they informed us about this vote. This is not the result that they have been hoping for, but it takes two parties to negotiate. There are clearly major issues outstanding.

WLUFA keeps its members informed by email and newsletters released to its website, which we have been checking to pass on this information to you. WLUFA has set up information tables, handed out brochures, created poster campaigns (some of us have approached our professors who wear the pin-badges), and has kept in touch with the Cord since the end of October. As we all sit in tense lectures, wondering whether or not we will even be attending in a couple of weeks, whether or not we will need to cross picket lines to get to classes, the administration has not released an ounce of information about how we will be compensated for our term. As we worry about the status of professional and grad school applications, as we worry about time spent and money lost, they have yet to give any information that sheds light on our situation.

It is at this point that I challenge the administration to inform us. I would like to see the administration shed some light on all of this too. I challenge them to create a website with the latest news, like wlufa.ca. I challenge them to talk to us about how they are going to change the situation for the CAS and improve their working conditions. I challenge them to come and talk to us in the Concourse and answer our questions, like WLUFA has, at our request. So far, the administration has sent out a canned email response, riddled with grammatical errors, telling us nothing relevant.

After all, the CAS's working conditions, are our learning conditions.

In solidarity,

Terre

Hit the Classes!

Next week WLUFA is having a strike vote allowing its leaders to call for a strike after March 19th. It feels odd to imagine that most students still either do not know, care, or know enough about such a proceeding that could shape their year so much - in two weeks time they might have to cross the the picket lines to get to those classes they still have. That is, if the full-time faculty, which overwhelmingly supports the part-timers, decides to cross the picket lines themselves to teach. That says nothing of the staff knowing that they are also extremely supportive of WLUFA. The university might grind down to a halt - all to send a message to the administration.

The great misfortune is that the collateral damage of all this, the students, have also the most powerful voice on this campus over what gets done - when all 14,000 of us speak, everyone has to listen. Collectively, our concerns have force. What people need to be is informed and how best to do it than speaking in classes?

Just recently we made the petition available for download, so print a few off and distribute them on campus and give it to your friends to sign but most importantly - ask your profs if you can speak in their classes. All four of mine (two part-time, two full-time) allowed me to stand up and in the first or last ten minutes of a class give a brief summary of what's going on, pass around the petitions, urge everyone to e-mail in, and then answer a few questions. You should do the same. After you gather the petitions drop them off at the WLUFA office in 2C12. We have over 1,600 signatures now, imagine if every class had somebody give a talk. It would be remarkable! 14,000 well informed, unhappy individuals will give the leverage our part-time profs need in order to avoid a strike and get what they want in terms of compensation for all the hard work they do in teaching courses because, let's face it, 6,000 dollars a course is minuscule. They deserve much more.

But more so, we have requested permission from profs to come and speak in their classes to inform the students and circulate the petition around even more. Majority have replied favorably, so much so, that two people can't cover them alone. So we made the schedule of classes which would hear what we have to say available for everyone. Now, you can just e-mail the prof that teaches the course, come over with a few petitions, give a talk, and then gather the signatures.

With many people, working separately in their free time but for a collective goal - they will get it. We have done much, there has never been a student-run, student-organized group helping the faculty in their negotiations, it's unprecedented. What we need now is the use of people's individual initiatives - the burden of change falls on us.

Petition Available Online

We are entering a crucial time in our school year where we actually have a date for a potential strike - March 19th. To avoid this we have made the petition available online - http://www.youshare.com/view.php?file=petition.pdf. Feel free to download it, print it, distribute it to your friends and in your classes, then bring over the WLUFA office in 2C12 where we will pick it up. To your parents, send out this link so that they can sign the online version - www.thepetitionsite.com/1/support-laurier-part-time-faculty.

Above all, let me urge you all to step up what you have been doing - this is a critical time in the negotiations which may make or break the term. Download petitions, send e-mails to the administration, talk, rouse up support - we've got less than two weeks left to make an impact and the more people are doing this, the better.

State of WLUFA Negotiations

I tried to get as much information as I could from WLUFA about the current state of the negotiations before I made this entry. You can read their latest newsletter here: http://www.wlufa.ca/negotiations.html.

As for our own research, I have both good news and bad news. The bad news first - as you might have gotten from the linked page above, as many expected, the conciliator did not resolve the issue between the part-timers and the administration and the negotiations continue as well as preparation for a strike on the part of the part-timers.

The good (and really the best) news is that our actions have not went unheard - the part-time faculty is re-energized by the burst of support from students. In less than a week, we have gathered over 1300 signatures of the petition and hundreds of leaflets with the e-mails of administrators have been given out. Such enormous support on behalf of the student body has not gone unnoticed by the administration who allowed the negotiations to progress a little before grinding them back to a halt again.

What this shows is that if we want these negotiations to progress and end in peace and if we want to save our semester from a part-time faculty strike, the burden of progress falls to us - more signatures, more e-mails, more concerns, more talk. The Cord will be publishing another article on the issue tomorrow while we are hitting the concourse and the public places. Feel free to come by and grab a petition in order to circulate it to your peers, friends, and classmates. In the next few days we'll try to make the physical version of the petition available online for download. In the meantime ask for a copy of the petition from me (tolyv@hotmail.com) or Terre (terrester@gmail.com) and we'll gladly e-mail one to you. Take a personal initiative - there's no reason why this movement needs to be centralized. All the while, send this link of the online petition to out of town friends and family members who also need to have a say on the issue - http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/support-laurier-part-time-faculty.

Administration Using Automated Responses to the CAS Issue

Since we started urging students to send (polite) e-mails of concern to the head administrators of WLU, it recently came to our attention that the administration has been using canned, automated responses to the inquiries and concerns that students have sent in.

A friend of mine, got this response to her carefully worded concern over the situation of the negotiations:

"Dear Michelle...

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us. We very much understand the pressures, both on our students and contract academic staff, of a lengthy bargaining process, and we are making every effort to ensure a fair deal is reached as quickly as possible. Since the start of collective bargaining, the university has offered to negotiate evenings, weekends and extra days, in addition to the two one-half days per week that the faculty association has been available. That offer continues to stand, and we're pleased that extra bargaining sessions have now been scheduled.

The university's focus is on reaching a deal, and we are hopeful the situation will be resolved in a positive manner. Contract academic staff members make an extremely important contribution and have a positive impact on the academic experience, so ensuring that they have a fair deal and that our students are not negatively impacted, is our priority."

Here's what my mother received:

"Dear Larisa,

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us. We very much understand the pressures, both on our students and contract academic staff, of a lengthy bargaining process, and we are making every effort to ensure a fair deal is reached as quickly as possible. Since the start of collective bargaining, the university has offered to negotiate evenings, weekends and extra days, in addition to the two one-half days per week that the faculty association has been available. That offer continues to stand, and we're pleased that extra bargaining sessions are now being scheduled.

The university's focus is on reaching a deal, and we are hopeful the situation will be resolved in a positive manner. Contract academic staff members make an extremely important contribution and have a positive impact on the academic experience, so ensuring that they have a fair deal and that our students are not negatively impacted, is our priority."

Exactly the same e-mail only to a different name.

No one is really surprised by this, here. However, it shows the blatant disregard for students by the administration. While it might be justified as being "time saving" due to the surge of concerned e-mails they have received, it is a badly worded, badly articulated, and poorly constructed stock e-mail that the administration has been using to shove away the concerns of individual students and thus practically ignore them with this automated message system.

This is very insulting, degrading, and harshly rude to the commitment of hundreds of students who have shown initiative in trying to resolve this crisis by voicing their support to the part-time faculty we all dearly love and appreciate. I think, the administration should strive harder to answer the questions and concerns posed by the student body if they want to keep this university as prestigious as it has been for the past couple of years.

Brief History of Negotiations

In the past couple of days as gathering the signatures took a toll on us in our daily life, we realized that we can’t, due to time constraints, carry on this campaign just on the backs of three people. So, I decided to write a short history of the current labour dispute between the CAS (Contract Academic Staff) and the administration in hopes that people will be more knowledgeable and hence more willing to run the table, spread the petition, and talk to their peers about this topic that’s so crucial to everyone’s education at Laurier. A detailed story of these talks can always be found at the WLUFA website (www.wlufa.ca).

According to the terms of the last contract between the part-time faculty members of WLUFA and the administration the part-time faculty received 6,000 dollars per half-credit course with often little or no benefits in terms of dental, health, retirement, or job security. Further, few part-time professors had adequate offices in which to meet the students and answer their questions about course material. Despite the name, many of the part-time faculty taught five or six courses a year (five being the typical for full-time faculty) while at the same time being at Laurier for many, many years. This amounted to a petty wage of 30,000 to 36,000 a year that had to cover their living and research expenses. It is no wonder that many of them taught during the summer and worked at numerous universities in the region, some driving for hours for work.

Despite these atrocious conditions in the past five years the university administration siphoned off 20 million (20,000,000) dollars from education and into building and renovation work – none of which went into building offices for the part-time professors.

In the middle of 2007, the CAS contract expired and the negotiating committee began negotiations for a new one on August 29th. Their aim was to improve their pay and benefits, ask for better working conditions, and introduce a new system for job security based upon the years they taught at the universe, not by the years they taught a particular course. While some of the more trivial aspects of the contract got renewed, the administration bargaining committee (hindered also by a much less experienced negotiating team) would not agree upon those key issues. And so, with little competence and sheer stubbornness left over from the previous presidency, negotiations that were supposed to end in the fall dragged unto past Christmas in a literal stalemate – the administration refuses to admit that part-timers, despite teaching 33% of the courses and 40% of the students, play an integral part in the workings of Wilfrid Laurier University.

With negotiations looking bleak and the prospect of a strike becoming more likely by the moment, the students who have been hearing about this predicament formed this group and began working toward informing and getting the students involved in these negotiations. It is a fact that the students comprise the most numerous and the most powerful group at the university since it is their tuition fees (especially when combined with government subsidies) that funds this university. In basically two days last week – Wednesday and Friday, we gathered close to 1000 signatures from concerned students who care about their part-time profs which is quite an accomplishment for a movement organized by basically three full-time students.

While word reached us that we are making some effect – both in re-energizing the part-time cause and being a pain in the ass to the administration with the long stream of e-mails flowing into the inboxes of the administrators. We fear it might be too little, too late. On Friday, as many of you know, the CAS bargaining team and the administration bargaining team met with a third party conciliator to break the stalemate. While the latest Cord article might have you believe that the negotiations are progressing nicely, it is either a straight-faced lie in a vain hope that we are as naive about these issues or Kevin Crowley, Associate Director of News and Editorial Services at Laurier, is ignorant of the issues. A conciliator is never called in when the negotiations are progressing, but the opposite, when there is a deadlock and it is the last chance to settle the affair before there is a strike. In fact, when the full-time faculty negotiates for a new deal they have a new contract within two months, now it’s been six.

Even though we try to be optimistic that the meeting with the conciliator, which dragged late into the evening, would be productive – we get every indication that both sides were too far removed on their positions to come to any agreement. If there is no mutual agreement within two weeks the part-time faculty are legally allowed to strike and they are preparing. It’s now only a matter of time unless something gets done.

So, let us send more e-mails (and calls) to the administration, send more encouraging e-mails to the part-time faculty, give this link to anyone who can’t sign the physical petition (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/support-laurier-part-time-faculty), And most importantly join us on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we’re we’ll be circulating more petitions in the concourse and speaking to classes and making every effort possible to avoid a strike and give the part-timers a favourable deal. The task is a hefty one but there are 14,000 of us and we can do it.

Act

There has been expressed to us on what students can do to act in support of their part-time profs, both to prevent a strike and because they are such great instructors. So, we will lay down everything a student, a parent, a friend, or just a concerned individual can and should do.

First, if they have Facebook, join the part-timers support groups here (Wilfrid Laurier only) and here (global). It should be noted that only people with Facebook accounts can see these pages, unfortunately.

Secondly, if they don't have physical access to Wilfrid Laurier, being a concerned individual some distance away, they can sign the online version of the petition here. Only one signature per person please. They should also not hesitate of sending out the link to the online petition (www.thepetitionsite.com/1/support-laurier-part-time-faculty) to anyone who wouldn't mind signing it.

Third, e-mail or (better) call the head administrators of Wilfrid Laurier University to express your concern for the issue. From what we have heard, our actions are making an impact on the negotiations. The full list of people who can influence the negotiations are as follows:

Max Blouw (President of the University) – max.blouw@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 2250
Beverly Harris (Chair of the Board of Governors) – bharrison@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 2443
Sue Horton (Vice-President: Academic) – shorton@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 2221
Jim Butler (Vice-President: Finance & Administration) – jbutler@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 2248
Scott Hayter (Vice-President: University Advancement) – shayter@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 3173
Leo Groarke (Vice-President: Brantford) – lgroarke@wlu.ca (519) 756-8228 ext. 5702
Paul Maxim (Associate Vice-President, Research) – pmaxim@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 3601
David Docherty (Dean of Arts) – ddocherty@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 3690
Charles Morrison (Dean of Music) – cdmorrison@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 2151
Lesley Cooper (Dean of Social Work) – lesley.cooper@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 5252
Ginny Dybenko (Dean of Business) – dybenko@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 2671
Deborah MacLatchy (Dean of Science) – dmaclatchy@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 2401
Joan Norris (Dean of Graduate Studies) – jnorris@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 3324
David Pfrimmer (Head of the Seminary) – dpfrimmer@wlu.ca (519) 884-0710 ext. 3229

Fourth, e-mail your part-time/CAS profs and voice your support for the education they are providing and the steps they are taking to be recognized as contributing members to the Laurier community. Also, consider e-mailing this special list of people who comprise the CAS bargaining team. I was talking to one of them and they are very happy for the support they are receiving:

Doug Lorimer (History) - dlorimer@wlu.ca
Jonathan Haxell (Archaeology and Anthropology) - jhaxell@wlu.ca
Mike Skelton (Library) - mskelton@wlu.ca
Laurie Blaikie (WLUFA) - lblaikie@wlu.ca
Michele Kramer (English and Film Studies) - mkramer@wlu.ca

Fifth, hit the classes - ask your profs permission to come and briefly speak and do it. This information needs to be distributed.

Finally, go to the WLUFA website and read up on the topic. Get acquainted and help us spread the news of the negotiations to everyone because we always could use more people talking and circulating the petitions, even if it's just for half an hour.

The Unpublished Op-Ed Piece

A few weeks ago we tried to get an op-ed piece supportive of the part-timers into The Cord. The attempt was unsuccessful. However, due to the wonders of the blog-o-sphere, you can read it here. While it is somewhat outdated in time and the threat of a strike is much more possible, it's ideas are still prevalent. Please enjoy:

Students Should Support Part-Timers

Anatolijs Venovcevs

Perhaps it is a cliché to start off an op-ed piece with a reference to a work of literature or popular culture. In which case, I’m sorry. However, of late, I could not help but see the ongoing arduous negotiations between the Contract Academic Staff (CAS) and the administration, its ever-ominous implications, and the student body’s relative apathy toward it as parallel to Nevil Shute’s post-apocalyptic world in his novel and later movie adaptations of “On the Beach.”

In it, after the people living in the northern hemisphere destroy themselves in a nuclear holocaust, the last survivors of humanity in Australia try to live out their lives as normally as they can while deadly radiation poisoning seeps in from the north to kill them via airways. While much less apocalyptic, we, the students, try to live out our lives as normally as we can when in the meantime negotiations between the CAS and the administration drag on beyond anybody’s expectations and the spectre of rumours for a possible CAS strike slowly stalks the hallways of the campus.

But I digress, my goal is not to scare anyone, something so drastic is not imminent and much legal process has yet to take place before Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association (WLUFA) has a strike vote. My goal here is rather more basic than that – an appeal to the most basic of human logic.

It’s simple: Does equal work deserve equal pay?

The answer is obvious – yes, that has been the demand of every repressed minority for the past century of political and social activism. There is no logically justifiable way that equal work, equal experience, equal quality of service from different individuals not deserve equal pay, benefits, and job security. Regardless of sex, colour, creed, age, sexual identification, etc. it is undeniable that equal output deserves equal value.

This minutia of reasoning seems to escape some members of this university’s administration when it comes to providing benefits to some of the hardest working members of the faculty body who are probably one of the most mistreated individuals out of all the universities in Ontario.

The term “part-timer,” as the CAS are sometimes called, is a misnomer when many individuals teach as many (and often larger) classes than their “full time” counterparts. It does not represent any deficiency in schooling when most of the CAS have Ph.D.s from equally-accredited universities nor sometimes experience with research in their fields nor even value of publication as sometimes a quick search of peer-reviews journals may reveal names of some very familiar professors.

What is it then? The issue with the CAS is a simple rebranding of fine men and women into the demeaning term “part-timer” as if they are only partially valuable to the function of the school. Forgive me; I fail to see how 400 “part-time” profs can only be “partially valuable,” regardless if you’re just starting out in university or about ready to graduate.

Yet, the administration fails to budge to the demands of the WLUFA bargaining team when it comes down to simple decision making of the negotiation process let alone finding a compromise to the CAS wishes for greater job security and office space to meet and answer questions of their students. That is the living definition of incompetence at its finest.

To most students, I would imagine, this sounds like some high-ended labour law skull drudgery which does not concern them in any way. While this might be true to an extent, it’s certainly would not appear so when the distant thunder of a possible strike becomes a hurricane of picket lines, cancelled classes, and very upset tenured profs. Neither will it appear so if the stress and workload of the CAS members of the faculty continues unabated to put an ever-increasing dent in our pursuit of education. Nor will it appear so if in ten years we would look and see the academic landscape of Ontario become a minimal cost-maximum profit endeavour no different than that of Wal-Mart with students as the customers, degrees as the poor quality cheap goods, and the professors as the most educated and most mistreated members of that dystopia. In that light, skull drudgery does not seem so irrelevant after all.

Students are not powerless in this affair. We have a voice that’s louder than we realize since our tuition is the fuel that keeps the university running. When we are not happy the administration must answer for its service. I urge everyone reading this to do something – write an e-mail to the administration, wear a pin, join the student solidarity group supporting the CAS endeavour, or at the very least, pass this article on to a friend and make sure they read it. Spread the word. Part-timers do give full-value.

And if our efforts, both of the CAS faculty and the students that support them, fails and fizzles out, I fear it will be like the last introductory lines to Nevil Shute’s novel, borrowed from the last lines of “Hollow Men” by T.S. Elliot:

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.