Category Archives: Employment rights

New Issue of Workplace Launched

Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor has just published Issue #20, “The New Academic Manners, Managers, and Spaces.”  This issue includes key conceptual and empirical analyses of

  • the creation and avoidance of unions in academic and business workplaces (Vincent Serravallo)
  • the new critiquette, impartial response to Bruno Latour and Jacques Ranciere’s critique of critique (Stephen Petrina)
  • the two-culture model of the modern university in full light of the crystal, neural university (Sean Sturm, Stephen Turner)
  • alternative narratives of accountability in response to neo-liberal practices of government (Sandra Mathison)
  • vertical versus horizontal structures of governance (Rune Kvist Olsen)
  • teachers in nomadic spaces and Deleuzian approaches to curricular practice (Tobey Steeves)

Workplace Issue #20 Table of Contents:

Parallel Practices of Union Avoidance in Business and Academia

The New Critiquette and Old Scholactivism: A Petit Critique of Academic Manners, Managers, Matters, and Freedom

Cardinal Newman in the Crystal Palace – The Idea of the University Today

Working Toward a Different Narrative of Accountability: A Report from British Columbia

The DemoCratic Workplace: Empowering People (demos) to Rule (cratos) Their Own Workplace

Bridges to Difference & Maps of Becoming: An Experiment with Teachers in Nomadic Spaces for Education in British Columbia

We invite you to review Issue #20 for articles and items of interest. Thanks for the continuing interest in Workplace (we welcome new manuscripts here and Critical Education),

Institute for Critical Education Studies (ICES)
Workplace Blog

UBC TA / CUPE 2278 President Appeals for Solidarity

CUPE 2278 President Geraldina Polanco appealed for solidarity and unity amidst recent ploys by a University of British Columbia faculty member and subsequently the University to splinter the graduate students union’s strike position.  Polanco wrote to members: “Our employer reads our communications to you — for example, they have told us at the bargaining table that they regularly visit our Facebook page and read our newsletters. This makes engaging in transparent discussions with our members regarding bargaining a difficult task for the Union Executive. Our members are sprawled across workspaces on the UBC campus and beyond, which reduces most communication to electronic routes that, by their nature, are accessible to the employer…. we are limited in our ability to communicate information with you via virtual routes because we do not want to facilitate the transfer of information to our employer.”

Responding to attempts to splinter or divide the union, the CUPE 2278 President now has to remind members and supporters: “Going forward with bargaining it is useful to keep in mind that the employer benefits from a non-unified membership. Our mutual trust in each other is paramount, and we hope our minimal communication with you has not been misread. Our lack of formal correspondence is not because we do not seek to be transparent but rather because we are limited in what we can say.”

Last week, FT faculty member Dr. David Klonksy published “Dear CUPE 2278,” a diatribe to undermine confidence in the graduate students’ leadership.  At these times a few anti-union or anti-labour activists are readily played by management.  Good try, bad motive, Dr. Klonksy.  The letter is seriously uninformed in stating that CUPE 2278 “Union leadership has made no effort to reach out to faculty.”  Let’s be clear, CUPE 2278 has reached out– the communication from the union leadership has been outstanding– a model of leadership and transparency. If a strike materializes from the overwhelming support, faculty members will stand on the picket line in support of and sympathy with the students.

Petrina named Expert Witness for Chan v UBC Racial Discrimination Case

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.

UBC TAs Approve Strike Vote

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

Chan v UBC Human Rights Tribunal Hearing Schedule

The BC Human Rights Tribunal has scheduled Hearing dates for the Jennifer Chan v UBC racial discrimination case 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

All are welcome to attend. For information on the case, see the recent UBC student newspaper, Ubysseyfeature article and the BCHRT for decision to hear the Chan v UBC and others [Beth Haverkamp, David Farrar, Jon Shapiro, Rob Tierney] case.

BC Teachers Adopt Bold Plan to Resist Unjust Legislation

BCTF AGM delegates break for information briefing (3-19-2012)

In addition to acknowledging and endorsing the immensely reliable and visionary leadership of BC Teachers’ Federation President Susan Lambert by re-electing her to a third term, BC teachers adopted a bold plan to resist the “harsh and unjust measures contained in Bill 22.”  About 700 delegates sustained an AGM over the weekend and through yesterday to see through the union’s Executive elections and formulate a response for the teachers to the draconian measures imposed by the BC Liberals.

“Christy Clark as education minister started this fight 10 years ago with her legislation that stripped teachers’ collective agreements of our bargaining rights and of guarantees for quality learning conditions for students,” said BCTF President Susan Lambert. “The BC Supreme Court found her bills to be illegal and unconstitutional, yet her government has done nothing to show respect for the ruling, for public education or for the teachers and students of BC. In fact they’re violating the rights of teachers and cutting the same services to students with Bill 22.”

“In April, all teachers will vote on the plan recommended by the AGM delegates. To be clear, the plan also includes a possibility of a future province-wide vote of members on whether it’s necessary to respond to government actions with a full-scale protest against Bill 22,” President Lambert emphasized. “At every step of the way, government has chosen bullying tactics instead of respectfully working with teachers towards a solution.”

Read More, BCTF News release

UBC Frets over Strike Votes on Campus

CUPE 116 members overwhelmingly approved a strike motion last week and CUPE 2278, Graduate Teaching Assistants, vote on a strike motion on Thursday.  AVP, Human Resources, Lisa Castle circulated today an advisory that “the University has concerns with the manner in which the Union [CUPE 2278] is presenting information to support a positive vote.  They state on their website that the University’s negotiating team has not listened to them.”

The GTAs are countering that a “‘yes’ vote is a show of support… And the threat of a strike means our issues have to be taken seriously; a strong positive strike vote makes it possible for us to make gains at the table.”

UBC Teaching Assistants Taking Strike Vote

CUPE 2278, the graduate teaching assistants union at the University of British Columbia, is taking a strike vote on Thursday, 22 March.  The bargaining environment for the GTA union has been awful for a number of years.  The current contract dates to 2005 and recent attempts to bargain with UBC have been frustrated by the BC Public Sector Employers’ Council’s “net zero mandate” and the university’s unwillingness to grant the level of respect the GTAs deserve. The union is asking 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?”

The 2005 contract was rolled over in the last round but signs suggest that CUPE 2278 will not roll over again under conditions of exploitation.  The union was forced to a full scale strike in the spring of 2003– a successful strike that reminded students, faculty members, and administrators just how vital GTAs are to the functioning of the University.  As was the case in 2003, CUPE 2278 is currently preparing research-based information for the UBC community and will likely have to counter the employer’s aggressive campaign to malign the GTAs and misinform the campus.

Anti-Union Legislation Passes in British Columbia

The draconian, anti-union Educational Improvement Act, Bill 22, passed in the BC Legislature late afternoon today on party lines.  BCTF President Susan Lambert lambasted the legislation as it was passing: “Bill 22 hurts students and attacks teachers’ rights.  It will only make working and learning conditions worse…. Bill 22 ignores the BC Supreme Court ruling last year, which found that contract- stripping legislation regarding class size and composition was unconstitutional.”   The BC Federation of labour tweeted that “Bill 22 passed against overwhelming opposition from BCers. BC Liberals disrespect voters, as they disrespect teachers… BC Liberals chose nasty partisan politics over good of BC’s kids with Bill 22.  Disrespect for teachers will hurt education.”

It’s a sad day for collective bargaining rights in the province. The BCTF meets this weekend in an AGM to debate and decide on the next steps.

Net Zero Workers

There is a long history of wage freezes for workers that amount to wage cuts against rapidly rising costs of living.  There was a time when governments were interested in supporting unions defending wages as a base for fair compensation for the work and a wage increase to maintain a decent standard of living against rising costs.  In bad times, unions and employers could give and in depressions the unemployed ranks grow, families collapse, and businesses fold.  Currently, governments are finessing to have it both ways.  A psychology of governing parties is to assure consumers and investors that the economy is always looking up while convincing workers that the coffers are empty and the economy is recessing.  While Athens burns business analysts comment daily that the markets are gaining lost ground.  ‘Economic growth is on the horizon while we are pressed to freeze wages and put our fiscal house in order.’  Mixed messages for the consumer as worker, now the net zero worker.

“Net zero,” newspeak for wage freeze, was introduced as a mantra in about 2002 and repeated by the Public Sector Employers’ Council (PSEC) in British Columbia from 2008 to this current point.  In 2010 the “net zero mandate” was reinforced in BC government or PSEC policy.  Public sector workers were again net zero workers.  The BCTF rallied hard against this and are standing up again to pool together all unions, as the governing party in BC again designated teachers as net zero workers.  Let them bargain, let them mediate, Minister of Education George Abbott insisted in legislative debate on 12 March, as long as “all of that is within the context of net zero.”

Thirty years ago, top executive salaries were about 15 times that of the average worker’s.  Now, those executive salaries are 75 times that of the worker’s.  It’s increasingly difficult to accept one’s fate as a net zero worker in the face of skyrocketing executive salaries and lawless mismanagement.  Of course, things might change should the net zero worker threaten to become a net zero consumer.  Net zero spending was once called a boycott.

BC Liberals Pushing through anti-Union Legislation

The BC Government approved on party lines an order to push through the anti-union/ anti-BCTF Bill 22.  The approved order states that “on or or before Thursday, March 15, 2012, at 5:00 p.m. all remaining proceedings relating to Bill (No. 22) shall be completed and disposed of.”  This rush to undermine fair bargaining rights in BC precludes thoughtful debate and the opposition party’s ability to amend or defer the legislation.  The NDP has amended Bill 22 for “cooler heads to prevail” and bring in a mediator to settle the labour dispute.  This is an option requested by the BCTF as well.

Repeatedly with Bill 22, through just a 3-day strike by the BCTF, the Liberals have insisted that legislation is needed for a “cooling off” or “cooling out” period while all along heating up the environment for undermining labour relations in the province.  Heating up for cooling down.  We’ve seen this too many times before with the BC Liberals.

ICES Appeal to Boost Support BCTF Petition to 500+

Post-secondary Support of Teachers / BCTF Petition

We want to forward this petition to the Ministry at the 500+ mark today or tomorrow morning.  Please circulate and let’s boost this to 500+!  We are currently at 399 signatures…

BC Ministry Proposes to Make Teachers Pay for Job Action

BCTF President Lambert (Photo by Rick Ernst, PNG)

As if Bill 22 could not get worse for labour, the British Columbia Ministry of Education proposed today to make teachers pay for past job action.  The BCTF rejected out of hand Minister Abbott’s proposal that teachers retroactively make up work lost to job action.  BCTF President Susan Lambert scoffed that “Minister Abbott is ignoring a commonly accepted labour relations principle: struck work is simply not done.”  Increasingly, the BC Liberals seem intent on decimating long-established principles of labour and, as UBC Professor Joel Bakan wrote in the Vancouver Sun, wanting to play fast and loose with labour law.  “Governments are obliged to govern according to law,” said Bakan. “That is what distinguishes democracies from tyrannies. As a fundamental democratic principle, the rule of law is seriously jeopardized when governments play fast and loose with constitutional and international laws, as this government is now doing with Bill 22.”

Attempting to slow the the rushed passage of the questionable legislation, the NDP’s John Horgan introduced an amendment today to delete most of Bill 22 and bring in a mediator to, although it will be defeated, introduce fairness into the process. The amendment states: “it is not in the best interests of the education system in British Columbia for the government to legislate teachers back to work when an independent mediator could be appointed by the government and the Labour Relations Board to resolve the collective bargaining dispute without legislation.”

Read more: Vancouver Sun

“Proverbial snowflake, hellbound” is Liberals’ Fate in BC

For two solid days in dozens of cities and towns across British Columbia, tens of thousands of students, parents, faculty members, peer unions, and the BC Federation of Labour turned out in support of the BCTF and teachers.  For the rally in Victoria yesterday, the President of the Canadian Federation of teachers flew across the country to be there, as did peer teaching union presidents and representatives from as far as Nova Scotia.  This is bigger than the BCTF BC Fed President Jim Sinclair announced over the last two days.  For the BC Fed and everyone showing their solidarity, this is about standing up for the province, for what is right and just, for rights, for workers, for people young and old struggling from day to day as citizens.  This is about democratic rule and the BCTF and BC Fed are in this for the long haul.  BCTF President Susan Lambert rallied today in Vancouver, promising the BC Liberals’ as they move on oppressive, debilitating legislation, that this governing party’s chance of re-election is that of a “proverbial snowflake, hellbound!”

BCTF President Lambert Speaks out at Vancouver Rally

That’s powerful and resonates with the vast system of public support that is turning out for the rallies across the province.  To try and govern workers– to try and suppress a labour movement that is ascendent and increasingly unified– with this might of legislation, Bill 22, is foolish.  The opposition party, the NDP in BC, is doing all it can to undermine and debate this anti-democratic legislation that is Bill 22.  Adrian Dix, Leader of the NDP, guaranteed the labour movement yesterday in Victoria that his party was not resting and would do everything in its power to give teachers the fair right to bargain– a right that every public or private sector union or professional association deserves.

This is What Solidarity Looks Like

15,000-20,000 rallied across the province while about 6,000 marched on BC legislature in Victoria to support BC teachers and stand up for BC.  The BC Federation of Labour organized the rally and with short notice the BCTF and peer unions in the BCFed summoned the show of force.  Parents and their children showed up by the thousands at today’s rally.  The halls of legislature shook, with the government nervously hearing BIll 22 while thousands joined in unison to drown out the oppressive measures, including outrageous fines for doing exactly what the BCTF and its widespread public support was doing. “Shame” on the BC Liberals the crowd chanted as speaker after speaker described the debilitating conditions under which the teachers and the BCTF are now placed.

“This is what solidarity looks like” announced BCFed President Jim Sinclair moments before bringing on BCTF President Susan Lambert.  Past BCTF President Irene Lanzinger, now secretary-treasurer of the BCFed emceed the rally.  More to follow from ICES…