Our Accomplishments! What has your Union done for you this year?
It is the end of another school year and time to review the accomplishments of our Local this past year.
Many of our members are not aware of the work that we do as your Union representatives. The numbers of faculty approaching the union for assistance and information has grown tremendously. We have kept records of these numbers and the type of assistance provided. On a weekly basis, the office and stewards receive an average of between 10-20 enquiries. We have supported individuals with a variety of serious concerns. The best part of this job is the ability to assist our members
This past year we have improved in our communication with our members. Our website is easy to access and the postings are well read. We have sent out several survey monkeys on issues important to faculty and have received positive comments. We are able to use this information in our work with management.
Education of our members has also been a priority. We have accomplished an outreach to Partial Load faculty, reviewing step placement and also continuation of contracts. A grievance has been submitted regarding this issue.
Workload Monitoring has sponsored education sessions regarding SWF’s. These have been well attended and we offered a blitz of education on SWF’s during the week of May 27-29.
We have been active in initiating grievances with the intent to protect our faculty. Settlements have been achieved to the satisfaction of our members.
We have LEC members who are active at a provincial level, attending important meetings and contributing to the work related to CAAT-A Divisional.
Our Workload Monitoring Group (WMG) has been extremely productive. Recently, management changed members and this has positively affected working relations.
One key discussion at WMG this past academic year was regarding management’s new policy of “Deliverables.” Specifically, beginning in September, 2013, a matrix was created that calls on full time faculty who design new courses to hand over ALL things developed: lesson plans, power points, activities, rubrics, quizzes, assignments, exams, answer keys, etc. Your WMG representatives argued very firmly against this matrix over the period of several months and ultimately secured a commitment from management NOT to discipline any full time faculty member who chooses not to hand over these deliverables. This is, however, an on-going concern, and your union local reps will continue to argue against the college’s requests to hand over deliverables.
Other accomplishments at WMG:
- $500.00 penalty paid to the professor for late SWF’s and $167.00 per late timetables
- 0.25 noted under complementary functions for mandatory training such as AODA
- Letter of Understanding which clearly states that fair payment for overtime based on class audits be provided to the teacher
- Clear establishment of position of management on volunteerism, ie, management will not put volunteer work on a SWF, inclusive of mentoring and Open House type activities.
- Extensive work on the Coordinator role inclusive of equity such as # of programs, # of staff, # of students to be announced soon.
- Letter of Understanding for Counsellors and Librarians
- Letter of Understanding for Probationary faculty
Our Health and Safety representatives attend workshops in order to be fully educated on health and safety. They monitor health and safety issues and bring matters to the attention of management such as wind turbines, air quality, and evacuation procedures.
Many of our accomplishments are confidential and therefore not listed here.
We look forward to continuing our support of our members in the coming school year.
Have a great summer!