by E Wayne Ross on April 6, 2012
Chicago Community Colleges to Tie Some Faculty Members’ Pay to Performance
The seven colleges of the City Colleges of Chicago system have joined a small but growing number of public colleges around the nation in linking at least some faculty pay to performance. Under the terms of a new contract with the union representing the Chicago community-college system’s part-time adult-education instructors, the instructors will no longer receive automatic 3-percent pay increases for staying in the system, but they can receive bonuses of up to about 8 percent tied to the performance of their students. Contracts linking faculty pay to performance are now also in place at Kent State University and the University of Akron, in Ohio. Texas A&M University has established a controversial program that gives professors cash bonuses based on student evaluations.
by Stephen Petrina on April 5, 2012
The BC Teachers’ Federation filed an application to the Labour Relations Board to quash the 28 appointment of Dr. Charles Jago as mediator in the current labour dispute. ”On April 2, BCTF President Susan Lambert wrote to Dr. Jago respectfully requesting that he step down as mediator, citing numerous factors that create an apprehension of bias. One day later, Dr. Jago wrote back, saying he declined to withdraw.” Lambert argued that “this government has legislated a biased process and appointed a mediator who not only lacks experience, but evidently lacks impartiality as well.” The BCTF is seriously concerned with insider connections to the BC Liberal Party. In 2006, Jago was on commission to former Premier Gordon Campbell’s Progress Board. The BCTF reports that Jago’s “findings clearly foreshadow positions taken by the BC Public School Employers’ Association at the bargaining table and also reflect policy directions laid out in Bill 22.” Lambert continued, saying “bbviously there is a strong linkage between Dr. Jago’s thinking, and the bargaining and policy objectives of this government.” Jago also admitted to the BCTF that he was “given the opportunity to review and ‘to wordsmith’ a draft of” the draconian Bill 22 before it was tabled in the Legislature. “This was the very legislation he would later be expected to interpret impartially as a mediator.” Jago was appointed on 28 March, shortly after the anti-labour legislation was passed.
Read More: BCTF News Release
by Stephen Petrina on April 4, 2012
Photo by Anne Sutherland, The Gazette
The Montreal Gazette reported that the Université du Québec à Montréal obtained a temporary injunction Wednesday ordering the strikers to allow employees and other workers to enter the university’s buildings and residences unimpeded. The UQAM is “fed up with striking students blocking access and harassing staff.”
Strikes and protests continue to escalate across the province and 71 students were arrested today in Montreal for storming the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. “Two security guards at the hotel were injured in the melee. A buffet table was overturned and dishes were smashed. A crowd of fleet-footed students estimated at 100 or more later roved through downtown Montreal, tieing up traffic and chanting their opposition to the planned university-tuition hikes.”
Read more: Montreal Gazette
by Stephen Petrina on April 3, 2012
Signs are pointing to a full strike by Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) at the University of British Columbia within a week. The GTAs’ bargaining unit, CUPE 2278, put its members on alert and is taking measures to train picket captains for successful job action. In the meantime, the University is calling the escalation “perplexing,” despite its longstanding wage freeze / cut for the students under rising costs to their graduate programs, exploitive working conditions, and rolled over contracts.
Routinely, the University has placed the Vice Provost and AVP Academic Affairs, this time Anna Kindler, in charge of the notorious Ad Hoc Senate Strike Preparedness Committee. Following the CUPE 2278 strike in 2003, UBC’s Senate rushed through a series of changes to the University’s Strike Policy and Guidelines and the charge of the Strike Preparedness Committee is to enforce the new policy guide. In 2003, many faculty and students felt intimidated by the University in its use of the policy guide in a “captive audience” workplace setting to maintain business as usual against union job action, including the full 2278 strike.
by E Wayne Ross on April 2, 2012
Harvard Layoffs Threaten the University’s Backbone: Libraries | Labor Notes.
Harvard has 73 libraries that comprise the largest private library collection in the world. The library system attracts researchers from around the world, a major draw for attracting the best faculty in all fields. From ancient maps to personal effects to photography collections, not to mention millions of books and journals in multiple languages, the materials of Harvard’s libraries are the keystone supporting billions of dollars in research grants awarded to the Harvard community each year.
Such a large collection is unusable without librarians and library staff to catalog materials and help researchers sift through the mountains of information. Most research using the Harvard library would be impossible without the aid of library workers.
by E Wayne Ross on April 2, 2012
KSU faculty unhappy about negotiations.
The leadership of the Kent State faculty union is unhappy about contract negotiations and might ask members to OK a strike authorization vote.
The KSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors told members this week that the administration wants “severe cutbacks in governance and minimal salary increases.”
by E Wayne Ross on April 2, 2012
The Chronicle: Study Finds Continued Growth of Unions for Faculty Members and Graduate Students
The number of college faculty members and graduate-student employees represented by unions has risen substantially over the past five years. But such growth might be slowing as a result of moves by state legislatures to curtail collective-bargaining rights, among other recent developments, according to a report published by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.
by E Wayne Ross on March 31, 2012
Stephen Petrina has been named as an Expert Witness for Jennifer Chan in her racial discimination case against the University of British Columbia at the BC Human Rights Tribunal. The BCHRT decided on 23 January 2012 to hear the Chan v UBC and others [Beth Haverkamp, David Farrar, Jon Shapiro, Rob Tierney] case and the Hearing is scheduled for: June 11 to 15, 25 to 29, and July 3 to 6 and 9 to 13, 2012
BC Human Rights Tribunal
1170 – 605 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
Chan initially filed her complaint on 10 May 2010 against the University of British Columbia, Beth Havercamp, David Farrar, Jon Shapiro, and Robert Tierney. A background to the case was recently published by the UBC student newspaper, Ubyssey, in a feature article.
by Stephen Petrina on March 30, 2012
Voting overwhelmingly on 22 March to move into a strike position, Graduate Teaching Assistants at the University of British Columbia are now mobilizing for a strike that may begin next week. Frustrated by the University’s unwillingness to give on key components in contract negotiations, the GTA’s bargaining unit, CUPE 2278, is taking steps toward labour action. The government and University have designated the TAs net zero workers. In many ways, the University ought to feel indebted to the GTAs, yet exploitative conditions prevail. CUPE 2278 has asked if it is “okay to let an employer profit off your work at a comparatively lower cost and then balance its budget out of your pocket by passing on its expenses?”
Let’s face it– the TAs, like all workers in BC, deserve much, much better than the net zero worker designation. And rolling over contracts that date all the way back to 2005 is not good enough. The UBC Faculty Association is also bargaining with the University at this time, with faculty members similarly designated as net zero workers. Yet unlike CUPE 2278, the faculty members have a no strike clause in their history with the University. If the 2003 CUPE 2278 strike is an indication, a vast majority of faculty members will nonetheless be on the picket lines behind and beside the students.
by Stephen Petrina on March 29, 2012
Photo by Phil Carpenter, The Gazette
Students stormed the Quebec Liberal party office in Montreal this morning and again a large mass marched down Pie IX Blvd. to the intersection with Notre Dame St. and blocked the entrance to the Port. Demonstrations are now nearly daily and at Concordia alone, about 10,000 students out of 30,000 undergraduates are boycotting classes. “Education Minister Line Beauchamp stated that students will need to choose between boycotting and their diplomas, saying they ‘can’t have it all’.”
The students have re-adopted the red square to symbolize their protest and remind the government of the force and successes of the 2005 strike and raise spectres of socialism and Marxism. The government’s plans to raise costs of education, students said, “would leave them ‘carrément dans le rouge’ or squarely in the red, the colour of debt.”
Photo by John Kenney, The Gazette
Read more Montreal Gazette
by E Wayne Ross on March 29, 2012
The Chronicle: Duquesne Adjuncts Seek to Form Union Affiliated With Steelworkers
Adjunct faculty members at Duquesne University are seeking to form a union affiliated with the United Steelworkers, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The steelworkers’ union said non-tenure-track faculty at the Roman Catholic college had formed a group called Adjuncts Association of the United Steelworkers and hoped to organize a collective-bargaining unit to push for more job security and better pay and working conditions. The steelworkers’ union is considering trying to organize adjuncts at several other colleges in the Pittsburgh area, Maria Somma, its assistant director of organizing, told the newspaper. Richard J. Boris, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, said on Thursday that he was unaware of any existing faculty union around the country with a United Steelworkers affiliation.
by Stephen Petrina on March 28, 2012
Setting a stage certain for failure, ex-UNBC President Charles Jago, appointed as mediator in the labour dispute between the BC Teachers’ Federation and Government, described the assignment as “mission impossible.” Jago is off to a rough start, with less than 12 hours in, with this off-handed remark, doudts about his expertise, and concerns about his political and financial support of the BC Liberal party.
BCTF President Susan Lambert commented that she “had not heard of Jago before the announcement” this morning and “also noted he does not appear to have any experience as a mediator.” ”I’m sure he is very accomplished person,” Lambert said, “but I am concerned about his ability to mediate this dispute and his ability to understand the issues that separate both parties.”
The BCTF bargaining team will meet with Jago, but Lambert “expressed concern about the perception of bias because of his donations to the B.C. Liberal Party.” ”Of course that would concern me,” said Lambert after hearing about the donations.
Read more, CBC News
by Stephen Petrina on March 27, 2012
Photo by Phil Carpenter, Montreal Gazette
Quebec students have planned a series of rolling protests while claims of Concordia and McGill university intimidation tactics against the students increase. Tensions on the campuses are escalating as the students are moving into their second month of activism against rising tuition and other costs to education. Students are reporting that the more the universities face the student activism the nastier the administrative and police tactics are getting. Three McGill students were banned from campus for protesting while others faced off with security guards. “This is completely a new level of political repression,” said Kevin Paul, a cultural studies and philosophy student at McGill. ”
Joel Pedneault, vice-president of external relations for the Student Society of McGill University, got a letter saying there were “reasonable grounds to believe that your continued presence on campus is detrimental to good order.” He is planning to contest the disciplinary action.
“This seems to be a real crackdown on students for the strike,” he said.
Teachers also reacted. David Douglas, of the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association, said the university’s decision to issue the directive in response to a peaceful demonstration last week was “interpreted by students and many within the university community to be an ill-timed and regrettably hostile gesture.”
A small group of professors at McGill also wrote to the administration to deplore the disciplinary action against the students, saying the student code of conduct was being misused “to persecute students at will.”
Read more, Montreal Gazette
by E Wayne Ross on March 26, 2012
The Guardian: Teaching union threatens fresh strike action over regional pay plan
Association of Teachers and Lecturers conference set to debate motion urging union to ‘defend robustly’ existing pay structures
The government is on a collision course with teachers over plans to introduce regional pay for public sector workers.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) warned that there could be more industrial action if proposals for regional rates lead to “an all-out free-for-all”.
by E Wayne Ross on March 26, 2012
Inside Higher Ed: Court Rejects Faculty Union
Almost a year ago, faculty members at the University of Illinois at Chicago filed papers to unionize. The drive at the university was seen as a major victory for academic labor, which has struggled in recent years to organize at research universities. And at a time when the treatment of those off the tenure track is an increasingly important issue to faculty leaders, the new union was to have combined tenure-track and adjunct faculty members. Since then, the union has been engaged in a legal fight with the university, which has argued that Illinois law does not allow joint units for tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty members. Along the way, the union won most of the skirmishes, but that ended on Thursday.
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/03/23/appeals-court-rejects-faculty-union-u-illinois-chicago#ixzz1qFOD1Hhh
Inside Higher Ed
by Stephen Petrina on March 22, 2012
CUPE 2278, representing graduate teaching assistants at UBC, overwhelmingly approved a motion to strike– 81% in favour. Now poised for labour action, CUPE 2278 heads to the bargaining table on Tuesday. The students have opted for solidarity with other unions:
On Thursday, March 15 local CUPE 116 (UBC) obtained a successful strike vote. 75% of the local’s membership cast a ballot. 89% voted in favour of potential labour action. An eclectic assortment of U.B.C employee’s (custodians, brick layers, electricians, gardeners, food service workers) came together to let the university know that they are willing to fight for fair working conditions.
Our members have been very vocal that our goals in bargaining need to be about more than simply increasing compensation for teaching assistants. T.A.s have expressed the importance of supporting their fellow UBC workers. Though there is certainly outrage at the amount of remuneration we receive in comparison to T.A.s at other universities, (http://cupe2278.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Steward_march_2012.pdf) we are ultimately fighting for more than just ourselves. We are striving to create equitable working conditions for all UBC employees.
Read More at CUPE 2278 blog
by E Wayne Ross on March 22, 2012
The Chronicle: Canadian Professors Are Best Paid in the World—Again
The latest project that looks at professorial paychecks shows that the United States lags behind Canada, India, Italy, and South Africa when it comes to the purchasing power of their salaries and academic fringe benefits, according to data compiled jointly by the Laboratory for Institutional Analysis from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and the Boston College Center for International Higher Education. The data, which cover 28 countries, look only at full-time professors at a time when adjuncts are employed in greater numbers, and the data deal only with professors at public universities. The study, which will be released shortly as a book, evaluates the local purchasing power of those paychecks to rank countries, which could explain the high position of some. However, Canada has consistently reported the highest faculty salaries for years, mainly because most professors are unionized.
by Stephen Petrina on March 22, 2012
Photo by Dave Sidaway, The Gazette
Historically, at least over the last fifty years, Quebec students have been immensely successful in checking the powers of government and universities from unilaterally raising tuition and other expenses for higher education. Large, focused, unified, and sustained protests by Quebec students over the years have been influential in keeping tuitions among the lowest in Canada. Knowing this, there is no way the students will back down from this latest and increasingly vocal series of small resistances and large demonstrations, protests, and strikes.
Today in Montreal, “tens of thousands of activists filled Montreal’s downtown core Thursday to protest tuition increases. Students demonstrating Thursday in Montreal and across the province, say higher fees mean higher debt for them and their parents. The protesters reject the government’s position that student aid, offered to about 35 per cent of students and based on a system of loans, will ease the debt burden.”
Read more Montreal Gazette
E Wayne Ross
Stephen Petrina