TO: CAAT Academic Local
Presidents
FROM:
Ted Montgomery, Negotiating Team Chair
DATE: February
20, 2006
Management continues
to stonewall on settlement. In fifteen days they may plunge the
college system into a strike that should be avoided – but only if
they negotiate responsibly.
On February 15 and
16, the faculty team put forward two different “without prejudice”
positions. Management’s February newsletter correctly refers to
these as “exploring possible options for settlement.”
The management
newsletter asserts that: “The Union did not change their workload or
wage demands.” I can assure you that the faculty union’s input into
these explorations did contain change to our wage position
and significant changes to our workload positions. As the
discussions are without prejudice , I cannot report at all on
management positions not even whether or not they took any
positions. Reports have been given to local presidents by bargaining
team contacts.
Asserting that the
current offer on the table is adequate is simply stubborn
indifference to reality. That offer has led faculty to vote over
80% in favour of a strike. We now see a recurring pattern in
management pronouncements – they want the Quality Improvement Funds
to be spent only on a college-by-college basis. That is why they
will not negotiate systemic changes. Rae, of course, found systemic
problems. Rae knew that solutions applied college-by-college would
only lead to the same old “poster child for efficiency gains.” The
continued decline in quality that Rae identified is the colleges’
legacy of the last decade.
That is why
management refuses to negotiate, and in an Orwellian doublespeak,
claims that the faculty have not moved. Faculty can only hope that
college presidents and Ministry officials are not being fed and
misled by the same half-truths and disinformation. It is imperative
that they know that the faculty union team has moved, and has
responsible, system-wide settlement options available to management.
On the wage issue,
management continues to compare their offer to college support staff
and to other public service workers. They continue to ignore the
actual high school settlements at their full value. The
university settlements – our other comparator group – are never
mentioned at all by this management team. Of course not, because
the university settlements are higher.
Interestingly, we
learned from the CAAT Pension Trustees that management had been
campaigning hard to increase the pension contributions we make by
another 1.5% this year. That means that the colleges were prepared
– actually lobbying – to increase the colleges’ matching
contribution by 1.5% also. The union-side Plan Trustees and Sponsors
stopped that initiative and the contributions will not increase this
year or next. [We can expect an increase not too far into the
future.] So …the colleges have 1.5% of the total payroll for all
pension-eligible employees that they were prepared to spend on
pension contribution, but they tell us they cannot afford our salary
demand. One can only wonder where that 1.5% is headed.
Faculty, knowing
that this would be a crucial round of negotiations sent an
experienced team to the table. Four of the seven members have been
on the last three teams that successfully negotiated settlements
that both parties signed off and agreed to without a strike. Two
others were on at least one of those teams. The management team has
only one member with experience in a previous round of academic
negotiations.
At a chance
breakfast meeting, a prominent member of the management team in
speaking to one of the members of the faculty team said this about
negotiations:
“It’s only a game.”
It is not a game! It is not a game in any way, shape, or form to
the faculty bargaining team and to 9000 college faculty prepared to
go on strike for a fair and responsible contract – a contract that
addresses systemic quality problems and that addresses college
student needs. Faculty are not going to allow the college system
fall into further decline.
Between now and
March 7, the team encourages all faculty to arrange a meeting with,
or to email, or to telephone your member of the provincial
legislature. Whether in government or opposition, it’s important
that the decision-makers hear us. It’s important that they learn
what is truly going on.
It is important also
that they hear from college students and those interesting in doing
something to improve quality in the college system.
Frequently, requests
of this type are accompanied by speaker’s notes. I don’t think
college faculty need such notes. We have experienced the issues
first hand. We want what Rae said the colleges need. We want what
the government has funded for – improvements to quality. We know,
as both Rae in 2005 and Michael Skolnik, in 1985 knew: that colleges
will not deliver quality if it is left in the hands of college
management. Higher level college managers may believe they are the
guardians of quality – that’s what Skolnik found – but every
independent study has found the opposite to be true.
Tell your students
what is at stake – Here are some excerpts from Premier McGuinty’s
May 13, 2005 speech at Ryerson on higher education in Ontario:
I didn’t ask Bob
Rae to prepare his report so I could shelve it.
By quality, we
mean more faculty at colleges and universities, to accommodate
higher enrolments and help students succeed, more faculty time
for students, more students completing their undergraduate
programs and going on to grad school and easier movement for
students between colleges and universities.
In Wednesday’s
Budget, we announced Reaching Higher -- our plan to invest an
additional $6.2 billion in our universities, colleges, and training
programs over the next five years.
It will increase
annual funding for higher education by 39 per cent by 2009-10… We
will add another $683 million this year, growing to a billion new
dollars next year.
I know that the
people who deliver our training and apprenticeship programs are up
to the challenge -- and they’re going to meet it.
College faculty want
the same things. We want more faculty time for students. We should
not have to go on strike to achieve this shared goal. But we are
certainly prepared to do so if that is what it takes.
Ted Montgomery,
Chair, Faculty Negotiating Team
