Students

A “No Board” Report has now been filed, and the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) will be in a legal strike (or lockout) position at 12:01am November 13th. So, what does this mean for students? Read on to find out.

Does being in a legal strike position mean that faculty will definitely go on strike?

No. Just like the strike vote, a “No Board” Report is a mechanism for increasing the negotiating team’s leverage at the table. Any decision to go out on strike can only be made by the UWOFA Board of Directors on the recommendation of the negotiating team and will come only after all other options have been exhausted, if and when there appears to be no other way to reach a fair agreement for Western faculty.

How likely is it that faculty will go on strike?

It’s hard to say. The UWOFA remains committed to reaching an equitable agreement at the table for all Members. It’s up to Western, our Employer, to do the right thing and respond to our reasonable proposals fairly.

What are the issues?

Provincial legislation currently constrains UWOFA members from negotiating salary increases of more than 1% per year, despite the current rate of inflation being much higher. This amounts to a serious cut in real wages for all of your profs, and enormous savings for Western, in addition to the huge budget surpluses they have already been accumulating for more than a decade. Despite having all of these financial resources, our Employer has not demonstrated a willingness to reinvest them in areas which would benefit both students and faculty, such as hiring additional faculty, looking after the health and wellbeing of all faculty by allowing Part-Time faculty to access health benefits currently only available to Full-Time faculty, or making faculty workloads fairer.

How do these issues affect me?

Western’s current budget choices do not make the people who deliver your education a priority: you deserve better! As enrolment increases you are forced to compete with one another for access to resources that are dwindling.

Ensuring that all programs are well-staffed and adequately resourced would benefits students immensely as we would be able to offer more courses, reduce the size of classes, and guarantee that the experiential learning opportunities valued by students would be sustainable in terms of workload for the faculty members who run these kinds of courses.

How would a strike affect me?

If UWOFA members were to go on strike, almost all Western classes would be cancelled. UWOFA members would be withdrawing all their labour from the university, so it wouldn’t just be in-person courses that are impacted. Your professors would not be available to you via email or online, meaning that everything done by UWOFA members would stop – no lectures, no assignment deadlines, no labs, no tests, no fieldwork, no grading, no research supervision, no letters of reference.

UWOFA members would also be picketing at locations around the edges of campus and this would disrupt bus routes, as LTC workers are unionized and they won’t drive their buses across a picket line. Canada Post deliveries to campus (including residences) may also be disrupted for the same reason.

What can I do to help avert a strike?

Visit our Take Action page and send a pre-written letter to Western’s senior administrators urging them to reach a fair agreement with the UWOFA and avert strike action. Once you have done this, encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Get loud on social media and be sure to tag us!

• Twitter: @westernu @westernuProvost @uwofa1;
• Facebook: @UWOFA, @Western University;
• Instagram: @uwofaco, @westernuniversity

To get more involved with campus efforts to improve Western’s budget priorities, contact us at uwofaco@uwo.ca. With your help we can build a stronger campus community for everyone!

91% of ballots cast in the Strike Vote in September were YES votes, meaning that UWO Faculty Association Members have now given their Board of Directors a mandate to authorize a strike, should it become necessary. So, what does this mean for students? Read on to find out.

Does a “yes” strike vote mean that faculty will definitely go on strike?

No. A strong “yes” vote does not mean we automatically go on strike. Any decision to go out on strike can only be made by the UWOFA Board of Directors on the recommendation of the negotiating team and will come only after all other options have been exhausted, if and when there appears to be no other way to reach a fair agreement for Western faculty.

How likely is it that faculty will go on strike?

It’s hard to say. UWOFA remains committed to reaching an equitable agreement at the table for all our Members. It’s up to Western, our Employer, to do the right thing and respond to our reasonable proposals fairly.

What are the issues?

Provincial legislation currently constrains UWOFA members from negotiating salary increases of more than 1% per year, despite the current rate of inflation being much higher. This amounts to a serious cut in real wages for all of your profs, and enormous savings for Western, in addition to the huge budget surpluses they have already been accumulating for more than a decade. Despite having all of these financial resources, our Employer has not demonstrated a willingness to reinvest them in areas which would benefit both students and faculty, such as hiring additional faculty, looking after the health and wellbeing of all faculty by allowing Part-Time faculty to access health benefits currently only available to Full-Time faculty, or making faculty workloads fairer.

How do these issues affect me?

Western’s current budget choices do not make the people who deliver your education a priority: you deserve better! As enrolment increases you are forced to compete with one another for access to resources that are dwindling.

Ensuring that all programs are well-staffed and adequately resourced would benefits students immensely as we would be able to offer more courses, reduce the size of classes, and guarantee that the experiential learning opportunities valued by students would be sustainable in terms of workload for the faculty members who run these kinds of courses.

The Society of Graduate Students at Western has taken a strong position in favour of a timely and fair settlement for UWOFA that favours wellbeing and success for both faculty and students: https://sogs.ca/announcements/

How would a strike affect me?

If UWOFA members were to go on strike, almost all Western classes would be cancelled. UWOFA members would be withdrawing all their labour from the university, so it wouldn’t just be in-person courses that are impacted. Your professors would not be available to you via email or online, meaning that everything done by UWOFA members would stop – no lectures, no assignment deadlines, no labs, no tests, no fieldwork, no grading, no research supervision, no letters of reference.

UWOFA members would also be picketing at locations around the edges of campus and this would disrupt bus routes, as LTC workers are unionized and they won’t drive their buses across a picket line. Canada Post deliveries to campus (including residences) may also be disrupted for the same reason.

What can I do to help avert a strike?

The “best student experience” doesn’t come free: if you want to help change Western’s budget priorities, you should make your views known now! You can: Share the link to this page and talk about these issues with your classmates and your student government representatives: do they agree that Western’s budget priority should be profs before profits? Get loud on social media and be sure to tag us!

• Twitter: @westernu @westernuProvost @uwofa1;
• Facebook: @UWOFA, @Western University;
• Instagram: @uwofaco, @westernuniversity

Tell Western administrators to do the right thing by reinvesting in teaching, learning and research. Send a letter or an email to the President and Provost (cc uwofa):

• alan.shepard@uwo.ca,
• provostvpa@uwo.ca,
• uwofa@uwo.ca

To get more involved with campus efforts to improve Western’s budget priorities, contact us at uwofaco@uwo.ca. With your help we can build a stronger campus community for everyone!

Your student learning environment is impacted by our faculty working conditions. Here are some important developments in the faculty bargaining process at Western.

UWOFA has now called for a strike vote during the week of September 26th. We are asking our members to vote “YES,” indicating their willingness to take strike action as needed, which increases our bargaining power at the negotiating table. The word “strike” might sound scary, but UWOFA will continue to work with Western’s representatives at the table to negotiate better working conditions for faculty, which will in turn make your student experience even better.

This page will continue to be your source of timely reliable information on our progress in bargaining. See below for answers to some questions you may have.

STRIKE VOTE FAQ

What is a strike vote?

A strike vote is a way for our membership to indicate their support for the work of the negotiating team and our collective stance on the issues.

What does a “yes” vote mean?

A “YES” vote expresses support for the negotiating team and gives them leverage at the table, because it provides the Association with the ability to call a strike. Past experience at Western and other universities in Canada has shown that Employers are unwilling to negotiate a fair deal until faculty show their determination through a strong strike vote.

Why are we calling for a strike vote now?

Last week, UWOFA released a report called Every Budget is a Choice 3.0. This is the third report of its kind that UWOFA has produced over the last decade – each one detailing Western’s financial position at the time of bargaining. Previous reports have indicated that Western was in a very healthy economic position, having accumulated budget surpluses that it has chosen not to reinvest in its core mission of teaching and learning. We’re sorry to have to tell you that the findings in this year’s report are no different, and they show a clear pattern of resource hoarding. We know that they have the money to give us many of the things we are asking for in bargaining. Western’s negotiators have been taking their time responding to our proposals, but of the ones that have been addressed so far, nearly two-thirds have been rejected. We feel that calling a strike vote at this time is an appropriate response to hearing “no” so many times from Western’s bargaining team, particularly after how hard faculty worked to continue to deliver quality education at the height of the pandemic. We hope that a strong strike vote will encourage Western to be more open to our bargaining proposals.

Does a “yes” strike vote mean that faculty will definitely go on strike?

No. A strong “yes” vote does not mean we automatically go on strike. Any decision to go out on strike can only be made by the UWOFA Board of Directors on the recommendation of the negotiating team and will come only after all other options have been exhausted, if and when there appears to be no other way to reach an agreement.

Is there a second vote to go on strike?

No. A positive strike vote delegates authority to the Board to decide based on the recommendation of the negotiating team.

What issues remain unresolved?

There are crucial issues remaining to be resolved in all six key areas of UWOFA Bargaining Proposals: 1) recognizing and rewarding faculty effort; 2) supporting faculty health & wellbeing; 3) fair and equitable workload; 4) collegial governance; 5) job security for contract faculty; 6) Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDID). We will continue to spotlight some specific details of our different bargaining goals in ongoing student updates, as we have done below.

Did you know that the mental health benefits available to Western students are better than those available to faculty? Or that Part-Time Faculty members are currently denied access to essential benefits available to their permanently employed colleagues? Mental health concerns continue to grow among all members of the university community, as we are impacted by the pandemic, current rates of inflation, and the general state of the world. All faculty members at Western deserve equal access to a benefits plan that at least matches the average benefits provided to university faculty across Ontario. It is important that Western properly support all members of the campus community equitably. A university which ignores or fails to adequately resource the health and wellbeing concerns of its entire community is not investing in its people. If your teachers are unwell, then your education will suffer. By not investing in us, Western is also failing to invest adequately in you and your education.

1. Cost of living compensation increases – as you may have heard, the provincial government passed Bill 124 in 2019, which limits the wage gains certain public sector employees can have to 1% during a 3-year moderation period, for as long as the bill is effect. Since this is essentially a “win” for Western, in terms of salary expenditures, we are focused instead on making other gains to reward faculty for their tremendous efforts to maintain teaching and learning quality under the challenging and unpredictable circumstances of the last two-and-a-half years.
2. Covid 19 mandates – contrary to gossip circulating on social media, our bargaining goals have nothing to do with these health protocols. Bargaining takes time and energy, so collective agreements, once negotiated, remain in place for a number of years. It would make no sense for us to bargain for these temporary protocols that would have limited long-term relevance for our membership.

Western does not seem concerned about ensuring that Part-Time Faculty have job security, benefits or compensation commensurate with their Full-Time colleagues. As students, you are paying the same tuition, regardless of whether or not your highly qualified course instructor is adequately compensated for their labour. Part-Time Faculty in many departments teach a significant number of undergrad classes, and as students move closer to the completion of their degrees and begin to think about grad school or job opportunities, they turn to the professors with whom they have built the strongest relationships, unaware of their precarious employment circumstances. These Contract Faculty want to support their students, so they may spend many hours responding to these requests, often helping to ensure that students are able to pursue the opportunities they desire. But as Contract Faculty are only paid for their teaching, all other labour or service they do is voluntary.
UWOFA is fighting for fair compensation and equitable workloads for all Faculty. Now that you’re (back) in the classroom, you will see how hard your profs are working for you. You can show your appreciation by calling on Western to invest in people – its greatest resource.

What is a collective agreement?
A collective agreement is a written contract between the employer and a union that outlines the terms and conditions of employment for workers in a bargaining unit. These terms and conditions are reached through collective bargaining between the employer and the union.

What is UWOFA currently bargaining for?
Our bargaining goals are focused on improving and maintaining quality teaching and learning at Western. We are prioritizing things like improving job security for contract faculty, recognizing and rewarding the additional burden the pandemic has placed on all faculty, faculty renewal for more equitable workloads, decolonizing the university, and strengthening our campus-wide commitments to equity and inclusion.

What is involved in achieving bargaining goals?
Some goals involve changes in policy, while others will require the Employer to spend money. Canadian universities currently have healthy surpluses, so we don’t anticipate this to be a barrier.

Why should I care about this?
The teaching conditions of faculty are the learning conditions of students. This means that your academic experience at Western is directly impacted by the support your faculty members receive from Western to do their jobs to the best of their ability. At some point during negotiations, we may call on students to show their support for their teachers and mentors – we hope we will be able to count on you when the time comes.

Why has UWOFA created a website section specifically for students?
We want to be transparent with you about what is happening, because a breakdown in negotiations could potentially disrupt your year, and after all of the disruptions to in-person learning caused by the pandemic, this is the last thing UWOFA wants. We hope you will find that you can rely on us to give you timely and accurate updates, as negotiations progress.