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!

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).

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?

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."

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.

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?

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!

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.

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?

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