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.