Category Archives: Campaigns & Contracts

Times Argus: College staff unionize

The atmosphere was one of jubilation in Stone Science Hall Thursday at Vermont College as college staff celebrated their overwhelming vote to form a union.

Of the 41 academic and administrative staff members who cast ballots during the National Labor Relations Board-moderated vote, 37 were in favor of forming a union. Ninety percent of eligible voters cast ballots in favor of forming the union, to be called United Professionals of Vermont College. Four staff members eligible to vote did not and their positions will be included in the bargaining unit that negotiates a contract with the administration.

The Chronicle: Staff Members at Vermont Campus Vote to Unionize

Staff members at the Montpelier, Vt., campus of Union Institute & University have overwhelmingly voted to unionize. The campus enrolls 1,000 nontraditional students who learn through self-designed study and brief-residency programs.

The vote, which was monitored by the National Labor Relations Board, came on Thursday. Of the 41 staff members eligible to vote, 37 voted in favor of the union. The bargaining unit, to be called the United Professionals of Vermont College, will include 48 positions, three of which are currently unfilled.

The union movement has its roots in the merger of Vermont College with Union Institute in 2001 (The Chronicle, April 16, 2001). Since then, staff members said, decisions have been made by Union’s Cincinnati-based administration with less input by those on the Vermont campus.

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CUPE BC: University Locals Head to Mediation

Since no significant movement has happened at any of the ten CUPE university bargaining tables and the government/employer imposed deadline of March 31 is looming, CUPE has applied for mediation on behalf of all UCBC locals: UVic 917, 951, 4163; Royal Roads 3886; UBC 116, 2278, 2950; SFU 3338; UNBC 3799 and TRU 900.

All locals will be in mediation in Vancouver in the next week. We expect the employers will meet the unions in mediation in Vancouver to resolve outstanding issues.

[CUPE in B.C. represents 70,000 workers in more than 170 local unions and across many different sectors. In early 2006, more than 40,000 CUPE members are in bargaining or preparing to bargain. Another 20,000 members will see their agreements expire by the end of the year. Most locals are grouped in sectors, and there are varying degrees of bargaining coordination within each sector.

CUPE represents approximately 9000 support and teaching staff within the university sector. CUPE is the largest support and teaching staff union in the university sector with members located at UBC in Vancouver, Locals 116, 2278 and 2950; SFU in Burnaby, Local 3338; UVic, Locals 917, 951 and 4163, and Royal Roads, Local 3886, in Victoria; Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Kamloops, Local 900; and University of Northern British Columbia (UVBC)in Prince George, Local 3799. CUPE also represents employees of the SFU Student Society, Local 2396, which bargains separately. ]

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The Daily Miniing Gazette: Tech union mediation unsuccessful, case heads

A Monday morning mediation to resolve issues stemming from an unfair labor practice charge against Michigan Tech University by MTU’s faculty union proved fruitless.

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Western Front Online: Faculty unionizes

A group of union-supporting Western professors filled the Viking Union lobby Feb. 23 after learning they won the election that determined Western faculty would unionize, by a narrow margin of 16 votes.

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The Chief: 9.4% Wage Increase Proposed: CUNY Reduces Offer to Faculty Union

Out of the ashes of a potential Professional Staff Congress deal with City University of New York management that was torched by the city and the state, a Feb. 16 sitdown produced a new set of proposals that will keep the PSC at the bargaining table.

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Daily Egyptian: Faculty union, administrators committed to cooperative negotiations

The administration and faculty union will attend a cooperative bargaining workshop in hopes that this spring’s contract negotiations will not be wrought with the contentious talks that almost resulted in a professor strike in 2002.

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The Bellingham Herald: Western Washington U faculty vote to unionize

Western Washington University faculty voted for a union by a slim 16-vote majority.
The union passed by a vote of 300 to 284. The state labor board counted mail-in ballots today (2/23/06). Union supporters said they were not surprised by the close vote but are committed to working with all faculty.

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Inside Higher Ed: NLRB Orders George Washington U. to Negotiate With Adjunct Union

The National Labor Relations Board has ordered George Washington University to recognize a union of adjunct faculty members and to start negotiating a contract.

The NLRB found that the university was too late in raising issues over employees who the institution argues should have been entitled to vote on union representation. The vote in favor of unionization, when adjusted by an administrative law judge who reviewed contested ballots, was 341 to 33.

The Chronicle: Labor Board Orders George Washington U. to Recognize Adjuncts’ Union

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that George Washington University is breaking the law in its refusal to recognize its adjunct professors’ union, which won a labor-board-certified election held in October 2004.

Sticking to the position it has held for months, the university maintained that the election was “flawed” and, on Wednesday, filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, asking for a review of the labor board’s decision.

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L.A. Daily News: Agreement reached on teacher pay

About 40,000 Los Angeles Unified School District teachers, counselors, librarians, and health care workers could receive a 2.5 percent pay raise this year under a settlement announced Tuesday by the district and union officials.

The 2.5 percent bump, which comes on top of a 2 percent hike covered in a March 2005 agreement, would be retroactive to July 1, 2005. It still faces approval by the school board and union members.

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Inside Higher Ed: Georgetown’s new benefits for Gays

Gay and lesbian faculty and staff members at Georgetown University are saying a rhetorical “amen” to new guidelines that will provide health insurance for their same-sex partners, starting January 1. More and more colleges each year provide some benefits for gay professors’ partners, but the trend is notably less evident at Roman Catholic institutions, making Georgetown’s move significant.

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Inside Higher Ed: Pecking order

Colleges everywhere are facing tough choices when it comes to paying for employees’ health insurance, and many institutions that once covered all such costs are now making their professors and staff members share in the bills.

The choices being made at San Joaquin Delta College, however, are raising a few eyebrows and a few tempers at the Stockton, Calif., community college. Until this year, the college paid the full cost of health insurance for all full-time employees. Some employees are being forced to share in the costs this year, and college officials have signaled that they expect similar contributions from faculty members when a new contract is ironed out next year. But at the same time, the college’s board has singled out a single group to continue to receive health insurance without having to pay a penny. That group is the board itself.

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New York Daily News: Teachers gripe, OK pact
Ending a long, bitter contract battle, city teachers voted by less than a 2-to-1 ratio yesterday to approve a deal that gives them 15% raises in exchange for surrendering a slew of work rights.

New York Post: UTF’s deal is done
After working nearly 2 1/2 years under an expired contract, city public-school teachers have approved a 52-month deal with the city that calls for a 15 percent raise in exchange for a longer school day and fewer perks. The United Federation of Teachers, which declared a tentative settlement last month with Mayor Bloomberg, announced yesterday that 63 percent of 86,617 votes cast were in favor of the pact.

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The New York Times: M.I.T. dismisses researcher, saying he fabricated some data

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced yesterday that it had dismissed an immunology researcher at its Center for Cancer Research, saying he fabricated and falsified data in a scientific paper and in grant applications

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Lawmakers mull ways to move teachers’ contract talks away from local boards

It’s fairly predictable: Local teachers strike, and the talk in Montpelier turns to the need for a statewide teachers’ contract. Vermont has flirted with the idea for more than a decade, but so far it hasn’t blossomed into a full-on romance.

In the past five months, however, Vermont has seen two local teachers’ unions strike when talks broke down with their respective school boards. The first came in May, when a group of teachers in the Northeast Kingdom went on strike for four days. Then, on Oct. 11, roughly 160 teachers in Colchester hit the picket line.

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Pay raises restored

Thousands of employees at state colleges and universities will get retroactive pay raises after Senate lawmakers voted on Wednesday to restore budget vetoes from Gov. Mitt Romney.The Senate voted unanimously to override two of Romney’s budget vetoes, which provided $42.2 million for one year of retroactive pay raises at the University of Massachusetts and at state and community colleges.

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The Globe and Mail: Teachers cast vote on illegal walkout

Labour leaders call for crucial meeting with Premier amid threat of job action

By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Wednesday, October 5, 2005 Page S1

VANCOUVER — British Columbia labour leaders yesterday demanded an urgent meeting with Premier Gordon Campbell and Labour Minister Mike de Jong to head off a threatened illegal walkout by the province’s 42,000 public school teachers on Friday.Members of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation are voting on the job-action plan, which their union recommended after a series of emergency strategy sessions.

Results of the teachers’ vote are expected later today.

The teachers have no timetable to return to work after the Thanksgiving weekend should they walk off the job en masse on Friday. The BCTF plan dictates that teaching will not resume unless it is approved by the membership in a subsequent vote.

Although BCTF leaders tried to keep their strategy under wraps until members learned of the details, word leaked out within hours of it being drawn up.

Government legislation this week imposed a new two-year contract on the teachers. The agreement provides no wage increase and no improvement in working conditions.

“Teachers cannot live any longer with having their working conditions unchanged, for year after year after year,” declared BCTF president Jinny Sims.

“When the very people who teach our students have their rights stripped away like this, it is a sad, sad day.”

But B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair said the government can still avoid a messy, nasty confrontation.

“This is a very critical time, again, in the life of this province, and we want to sit down and discuss a solution to this dispute,” Mr. Sinclair said after meeting with Ms. Sims and other union leaders.

“If [Premier Campbell and Mr. de Jong are] not willing to meet with us, then they are clearly not interested in seeking solutions,” he said. “This is not just an issue for the BCTF. It is an issue for the B.C. Federation of Labour and working people across the province.”

At the same time, Ms. Sims appeared to offer an olive branch, pledging to return to negotiations for a new contract “without preconditions.”

Her call may mean the teachers no longer require a “fair and reasonable wage increase” in defiance of a government-mandated, two-year wage freeze.

“We believe a solution is possible. Legislation is not the answer. It does absolutely nothing to address the learning conditions of our students,” she said, standing beside Mr. Sinclair and other members of the labour federation’s executive.

Friday’s walkout would be the teachers’ second protest strike since the Liberals came to office in 2001. They held a one-day walkout in early 2002, after the government imposed a three-year contract.

Teachers have become fierce foes of Mr. Campbell’s government, which brought in legislation stripping them of the right to negotiate class size and including them in the province’s essential-services regulations.

During the last election, the BCTF spent an estimated $5-million in anti-Liberal advertising.

The teachers’ mood was not improved by full-page government ads in newspapers yesterday, explaining the legislation under the large headline “Taking Action for B.C. Students.”

Yet Ms. Sims said learning conditions for students have deteriorated markedly under the Liberals, particularly for those with special needs.

Bill 12 was brought in a week before the teachers had been scheduled to launch rotating strikes.

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Vancouver Sun: <a href=”http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=7813e2a2-187d-4cfd-bbb0-ec679d555202″

Jonathan Fowlie
Vancouver Sun, with files from Canadian Press

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

B.C. teachers will announce today what action they will take in response to a government-imposed contract settlement, after they have considered and voted on so-far-undisclosed recommendations from their union executive.
“Our members are reeling under the latest injustice — the attack on their rights, on their professionalism and on their professional responsibilities,” B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jinny Sims said, referring to the government’s decision to impose a zero-wage-increase contract on the province’s 42,000 public school teachers.

“They are looking at all the options that are open to them, and they will have made a decision by [Wednesday] evening,” Sims told a Tuesday-afternoon press conference.

She said the BCTF will announce its plans tonight at about 7:30 p.m., once all teachers have voted on what to do next.

In meetings across the province Tuesday night and tonight, the teachers are considering recommendations from the BCTF executive about possible responses to the government’s move.

Sims refused Tuesday to disclose or discuss the executive recommendations, noting they could change because teachers have the option of amending them.

“We have very clear democratic processes; our members have to make a decision before I make the announcement,” she said.

In 2002, teachers held a day of protest in response to the last imposed settlement, though Sims would not say Tuesday if such an action was an option this time around.

Sims said she has asked the province for another chance to reach an agreement at the bargaining table.

“We urge this government to send representatives to sit down with teachers,” she said. “We believe there is a solution possible and we’re willing to go to the table without any preconditions.”

B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair, who with several other labour representatives joined Sims at the news conference, said federation members “unanimously support” the BCTF.

He said he wants a meeting with Labour Minister Mike de Jong and Premier Gordon Campbell to discuss the matter.

Sims said she would also not discuss what lies ahead, or say how much notice the union would give parents in the event of job action, promising only that teachers would be in classrooms across the province for school today.

The provincial Liberal government announced on Monday it will impose a settlement on teachers through legislation that will extend the existing contract to June 30, 2006, effectively quashing the teachers’ right to strike.

Teachers had been asking for a 15-per-cent increase over three years, but the new legislation means they are facing a wage freeze until next June.

BCTF executive members gathered in Vancouver for emergency meetings Monday night and Tuesday morning. B.C. Fed members also met both days, and said they will meet again on Thursday once it is clear what teachers have decided.

The president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation also spoke out against the B.C. government on Tuesday, and backed teachers in the dispute.

“We are staunchly opposed and over 210,000 teachers across Canada are united with their B.C. colleagues in this battle,” said Winston Carter, president of the federation and a school administrator in Gander, Nfld.

This is the fourth time since 1993 that NDP and Liberal governments have imposed settlements in teacher negotiations.

Calling the bargaining system “broke,” de Jong said on Monday his government will create a commission to develop a new bargaining system between teachers and their employer, the B.C. Public School Employers Association.

During negotiations, the two sides met 35 times and did not agree on a single issue. They were also hundreds of millions of dollars apart.

jfowlie@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

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Canadian teachers support BC colleagues

Yahoo! News
Teachers across Canada support B.C. colleagues: head of federal association

CAMILLE BAINS
Tue Oct 4, 7:00 PM ET

VANCOUVER (CP) – Teachers across the country are appalled at the B.C. government for imposing a legislated contract on the province’s teachers, says the president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation.

“We are staunchly opposed and over 210,000 teachers across Canada are united with their B.C. colleagues in this battle,” said Winston Carter, a school administrator in Gander, N.L. “What’s happening in British Columbia can happen anywhere in Canada and all 17 (teacher) member organizations are focused on British Columbia and we’re there to help in any way we can as soon as is requested.”

No other government has legislated teachers back to work as far as he can remember, Carter said, adding the B.C. government has “raised the legislative stick” against teachers.

The Liberals had already been under fire from teachers for being the only government in Canada to declare education an essential service, limiting teachers’ job action during contract negotiations.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong introduced the legislation Monday, angering teachers who had planned to step up job action next week to press their contract demands.

Jinny Sims, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, said the government acted in a punitive manner by using the “legislative hammer” to strip away teachers’ bargaining rights.

The union, which represents 42,000 teachers, held an emergency meeting Monday night to come up with a response to the legislation.

Teachers across the province will vote on the union’s recommendations and the results will be announced Wednesday by their union, Sims told a news conference.

Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, backed the teachers and called on B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and de Jong to meet with teachers to negotiate a settlement.

“We know that if we don’t find an answer then we will be into a major crisis in this province, one that we don’t need,” Sinclair said.

On Tuesday, the Liberal government launched a major advertising campaign to sell the legislation by placing full-page ads in major newspapers in B.C.

But Finance Minister Carole Taylor refused to answer questions in the Legislature from Opposition New Democrats who demanded to know how much taxpayers’ money the government had spent on the ads.

De Jong has said he doesn’t want students to be held hostage by a labour dispute. Teachers say they’re fighting for better learning conditions for students.

Teachers want a cap on class sizes and a return to the resources students had before funding cuts in 2002, which left fewer teacher-librarians and special needs and ESL teachers in schools.

Carter said the Ontario and Alberta governments have reduced class sizes, with Ontario capping kindergarten to Grade 3 classes at 20 students.

Ontario is starting to hire 1,200 new teachers this year to meet the province’s requirements, he said.

Since 1993, B.C. teachers have had a contract imposed on them four times by two successive governments – the NDP and the Liberals.

De Jong blamed the bargaining process, saying he will appoint an industrial inquiry commissioner later this week to develop a new negotiating structure before the teachers’ next contract in June 2006.

An essential service designation for education means teachers can stage limited job action only after the Labour Relations Board rules what is acceptable.

Less than two weeks ago, teachers voted 88 per cent in favour of a strike.

They began job action last week by refusing to attend staff meetings or doing other administrative duties.

Teachers had asked for a 15 per cent wage increase over three years, but the legislation means they are now facing a wage freeze until next June.

The government has a zero-wage increase policy for all public sector employees. B.C. teachers say they are falling behind their colleagues in Alberta and Ontario.

Quebec teachers, the lowest-paid teachers in Canada, are also currently tussling with their government.

They’ve been without a contract for 22 months and are getting nowhere, Carter said.

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