The path to a fair settlement: faculty table final offer to avert strike
Three critical issues remain – 50:50 ratio of full-time to contract faculty; job security for partial-load faculty; and academic freedom
In a bid to avert a strike, the college faculty bargaining team has tabled its final offer to the College Employer Council. We made substantive changes to our offer in direct response to the Council’s stated concerns about costs and governance.
While governance has been taken off the negotiating table, faculty will be calling on the provincial government to create an all-party select committee on collegial governance in the college system.
Faculty will continue to lobby the government for equal pay for equal work and to improve the language in Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act.
Three critical issues
After careful consideration and review, we focused on the three critical issues faculty need addressed in this round of bargaining to ensure quality education and fairness: 50:50 ratio of full-time to contract faculty; job security for partial-load faculty; and academic freedom.
50:50 ratio of full-time to contract faculty
This proposal:
- establishes a ratio of full-time to non-full-time faculty that ensures stability and flexibility;
- establishes the basis for standardized data collection with the assistance of the Ministry of Labour to ensure consistent and accurate staffing level information; and
- ensures a realistic timeline to reach the target of a 50:50 ratio and reasonably distribute the cost.
Job security for partial-load faculty
This proposal:
- enhances partial-load job security and requires the college to issue contracts three weeks in advance of the semester;
- creates improved progression on the salary schedule and reflects all work done during academic year;
- enhances seniority for partial-load faculty; and
- clarifies the role of seniority in assigning work to partial-load faculty and improves language on equity and diversity in hiring.
Academic freedom
This proposal:
- defines the specific faculty rights that academic freedom entails;
- reflects contract language in effect in other Canadian colleges; and
- affirms faculty ability to make academic decisions about their courses, research and professional activities.
What’s at stake
We know that faculty want to be back in their classrooms with their students on Monday. We also understand that students want to continue the education they deserve and have paid for, without interruption.
The only significant remaining cost in faculty’s offer relates to creating a stable faculty complement. Our final offer reasonably distributes the cost over the life of the collective agreement. In light of Bill 148 and its aim to provide equal pay for equal work, the cost will be nominal.
Our offer includes many of Council’s proposals in a sincere effort to move towards a deal now.We are urging Council to seriously consider our offer as the path to a fair settlement and thereby avert a strike.
For further information and to view the faculty bargaining team’s final offer, please visit:www.collegefaculty.org.
In solidarity,
JP Hornick
Chair, College faculty bargaining team
