We are pleased to report that 91% of ballots cast were YES votes, in support of the UWOFA Board of Directors authorizing strike action if necessary.

Thank you to all who worked on organizing and mobilizing the strike vote, and to all who cast a ballot last week. This strong show of support will certainly strengthen our Negotiating Team’s ability to bargain better provisions for reward and recognition of faculty effort, equitable workloads, health and wellness, and job security, as they return to the table with our Employer on October 4th, 5th, and 6th.

Stay tuned for a detailed bargaining update later this week, which will address next steps, as well as a strike-preparedness survey and suggestions for classroom messaging.

Here is all the information you need to Vote “YES” to a strike vote next week.

WHEN

Between 1:30pm on Monday, September 26th and noon on Friday, September 30th. If you register to vote online, you may cast your ballot at any time during this period, once you have received an email confirming your registration (see “How” below). If you plan to vote in-person on campus, please see below for polling station dates, locations and hours.

HOW

Both online and in-person voting options are available. If you wish to vote online, you must register in advance. The deadline to do so, is Thursday, September 22nd. If you are voting in person, you will need to bring ID.

WHERE

• Monday, Sept. 26th, Labatt Health Sciences Building (HSB), Lobby – 1:30-7pm
• Tuesday, Sept. 27th, University College (UC), Room 3225 (following info session) and Hallway – 1:30-7pm
• Wednesday, Sept. 28th, Social Science Centre (SSC), 2nd Floor Lobby- 9am-7pm
• Thursday, Sept. 29th, Middlesex College (MC) Lobby – 9am-7pm
• Friday, Sept. 30th, Elborn College (EC), Room 2120 (UWOFA Office) – 9am-12noon

If your next question is why, you can find our detailed explanation for calling for a Strike Vote in this week’s Bargaining Bulletin, which outlines the hard work your Negotiating Team has been doing at the table.

Please also plan to attend one of the information meetings being held at the start of next week:

• Monday, September 26th, 11:30am-1:30pm, via Zoom (look for the link in your email)
• Tuesday, September 27th, 11:30am-1:30pm, University College, Room 3225 (please note that you will be able to vote in person, immediately following this meeting)

Your support will make a difference and we all need to show strong solidarity to achieve our bargaining goals. Vote “YES” and help empower your Negotiating Team to get a fair and equitable deal which honours your hard work and commitment to university education.

This week’s Bargaining Update provides an overview of negotiating progress so far and explains why we are now calling for a strike vote.

To date, the Employer has said “no” outright to 20 of our 55 proposals, while considering an additional 3 to be constrained by Bill 124. Twenty more proposals still await a response. The Employer does not seem to be negotiating in a way which takes into consideration the substantial impacts of the last two-and-a-half years on faculty workload and wellbeing, despite the administration’s expressions of gratitude for our service in their public relations communications.

If the current rate of inflation holds, Faculty could be looking at a 25% pay cut over three years. Bill 124, meanwhile, saves the Employer $1-1.7M per year. We would like to see those dollars reinvested in the core mission of the university, but it’s now clear that the Employer is not going to do the right thing without some additional pressure.

In the attached document you will find a detailed record of proposals and responses from both sides of the table, along with a Strike Vote FAQ.

We encourage you to come out to one of these two information meetings scheduled for next week:

• Monday, September 26th, 11:30am-1:30pm, via Zoom (link to follow)
• Tuesday, September 27th, 11:30am-1:30pm, University College, Room 3225

Help empower your Negotiating Team to get the best deal possible for you, by voting “YES”!

UWOFA strongly supports PSAC 610 in starting a unionization drive for Graduate Student Assistants (GSAs) and Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs).

These two groups of graduate workers are not unionized and perform tasks beyond their workload.

We ask that you join the efforts of PSAC 610 in advocating to improve working conditions for GSAs and GRAs.

Please follow this link for more information: https://www.psac610.ca/unionizationdrive

We have prepared a report to outline Western’s current economic position. As you will see, Western has the money to reinvest in faculty and the academic mission, but they are choosing not to.

After two more days at the bargaining table, it’s clear that the Employer is not going to be moved to adequately recognize and reward faculty efforts without some additional pressure. Look for a message early next week outlining our next steps.

This report documents Western’s finances over the last 12 years, focusing on the four years since we negotiated our last Collective Agreement.

Welcome to the fall semester! Your Mobilization Committee and volunteers have been busy this week, connecting with students during O-Week events and the greater London community at the Labour Day picnic.

Updates on Negotiations 

Four bargaining meetings have taken place over the last two weeks.

Your Negotiating Committee continues to work to achieve an agreement that delivers improvements in the key thematic areas of our goals. There has been agreement on some proposals, but because negotiations started late, we have not been able to progress as much by September as we have in the past. The Employer has not shown receptiveness to most of our proposals on Workload and those for Part-Time Faculty, and they have not yet presented a full Compensation and Benefits proposal. We are working for:

• Fair workloads & improved job security;
• Equity, diversity, inclusion and decolonization;
• Recognition and reward for faculty effort;
• Supports for faculty health and wellbeing;
• Protections and enhancements of collegial governance and due process.

Bargaining Information Meeting

Information meetings will be held (both in-person and virtually) on Monday, September 12th, where representatives from your Board of Directors and Negotiating Committee will be available to provide a detailed update and answer questions.

Upcoming Bargaining Meetings

As was reported in the last bulletin, bargaining meetings continue to be scheduled at regular intervals into the next month:

• September 13
• September 15
• September 21
• September 23
• September 28
• September 29
• October 4
• October 5
• October 6

What can you do?

• If you are currently teaching, talk to your students about bargaining. Faculty working conditions are their learning conditions, so they have a vested interest in many of our Bargaining goals. Some materials have been prepared for you to share in your classroom if you wish (a pdf or power-point slide which can be inserted in lecture materials if you use visual aids). Encourage students to follow UWOFA on social media and direct them to the student page of our website for regular updates.
• Attend one of the Bargaining Information meetings scheduled for Monday September 12th (in person or virtually) and encourage your colleagues to attend.
• Get in touch with UWOFA’s Communications Officer to make a short video expressing a message of support or highlighting how a particular bargaining goal impacts you personally. This video will then be posted to social media.
• If you want to get involved in building support for UWOFA bargaining goals, please contact Mobilization Chair, David Heap.

As members prepare for the fall semester and students begin to arrive on campus, your negotiating team at UWOFA is back at the bargaining table with the Employer.

Updates on Negotiations 

There were two bargaining meetings this week, on Tuesday, August 23rd and Thursday, August 25th. Conciliator Paul Pooler was present at both meetings. See Bargaining Bulletin Vol. 8, No. 7 for more information on conciliation. We have presented our proposals, and the Employer’s team has presented most of theirs.

Your Negotiating Committee is working hard to achieve an agreement that delivers improvements in the key thematic areas of our goals listed below:

• Fair workloads & improved job security;
• Equity, diversity, inclusion and decolonization;
• Recognition and reward for faculty effort;
• Supports for faculty health and wellbeing;
• Protections and enhancements of collegial governance and due process.

Save the Date

Please take note in your calendars that information meetings will be held (both in-person and virtually) on Monday, September 12th, where representatives from your Board of Directors and Negotiating team will be available to provide an update and answer questions. These meetings will be 1-2 hours in length, depending on what transpires at the bargaining table before then. Start times will be:

9:30am in person, Room 290 – McKellar Theatre

1:30pm on Zoom (link to come)

Upcoming Meetings

We are pleased to report that a full calendar of meeting dates has been scheduled over the next 6 weeks (see below) and we look forward to making significant progress in this time.

• August 31
• September 2
• September 7
• September 8
• September 9
• September 13
• September 15
• September 21
• September 23
• September 28
• September 29
• October 4
• October 5
• October 6

Take Action 

Get loud on social media:

• Make sure to tag us! Twitter: @westernu @westernuProvost @uwofa1; Facebook: @UWOFA, @Western University; Instagram: @uwofaco, @westernuniversity

Send a letter or an email to the President and Provost (cc uwofa):

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

Get in touch with UWOFA’s Communications Officer to make a short video recording of yourself expressing a message of support, which would then be posted to social media.

If you want to get involved in building support for our UWOFA bargaining goals, please contact our Mobilization Chair, David Heap.

UWOFA supports Western’s recent announcement regarding Covid policies as we return to campus for the fall semester. Our priorities are to keep everyone safe and to minimize any disruption to teaching and learning which might result from widespread outbreaks.

While we applaud the decision to implement masking in instructional spaces, we encourage everyone to mask everywhere indoors that social distancing is not possible, and we will continue to advocate for broader indoor masking.

Classes begin in three weeks, and members are busy at work finalizing course outlines, but UWOFA is still waiting for confirmation regarding the Covid health protocols which will be in place on campus to keep our community safe.

The most recent announcement in June indicated that masks would no longer be required indoors at Western and the affiliated colleges, and UWOFA expressed its dismay at the premature lifting of that health protection. Mandatory masking has been one of the many important public health mitigations which have helped to keep our campus community safe, particularly when combined with high vaccination rates. UWOFA continues to advocate for mandatory indoor masking.

The pandemic is not over, as community spread levels are currently high in parts of the province. Pandemic deaths here in London this year are on track to exceed 2021 statistics, according to a July 28th report from the CBC.

According to Marylou Albanese, the MLHU’s director of environmental health and infectious disease control, “regardless of what people are doing and what the law requires, the MLHU is still recommending people regularly mask when outside their regular social circles, wash their hands and keep a safe distance from others in order to avoid spreading the virus.”

UWOFA supports this recommendation and encourages members to follow it.

Conciliation: Explainer

As you know, the UWOFA Board of Directors voted unanimously last week to file a request with the Ministry of Labour to appoint a conciliation officer to assist us with negotiations. It is the hope of the BOD and the negotiating team that this will help to ensure that a new collective agreement can be negotiated in a timely manner, particularly as only two days of meetings were scheduled before the summer break.

Conciliation is the next step in the collective bargaining process, whereby a third party can help the two sides reach an agreement.

What is Conciliation?

The Ontario Ministry of Labour appoints a facilitator who may act as a mediator between the two parties in order to try to reach a settlement. Your negotiating team believes that the request for conciliation will help focus discussions and support efforts to bring about an equitable settlement.

What is the role of a conciliator?

The role of the conciliator is to confer with both parties and endeavor to reach a collective agreement. The conciliator has no authority to impose a settlement.

The appointment of a conciliator does not signal an unwillingness to negotiate, nor is it a declaration of an impasse. In recent years, conciliation has been a normal part of collective bargaining. It is a service provided by the Ontario Ministry of Labour at no cost and it is aimed at facilitating an agreement.

What’s next?

There are three paths to a collective agreement using conciliation services:

• The two parties could come to an agreement through conciliation.
• The parties could agree to continue with negotiations without third-party assistance after some conciliation sessions with the possibility of returning to conciliation at a later time.
• The conciliator could file a “no board” report if it’s determined that the two sides are unable to reach an agreement.

17 days after the conciliator files a “no board” report with the Ministry, a lockout or strike is legally possible. Your negotiating team continues to work hard at the table to achieve a fair and equitable collective agreement and defend the university’s core mission of quality teaching and research.

Take Action

While your team encourages everyone to enjoy their summer break, we ask that you continue to voice your concerns to keep the conversation going.

Get loud on social media:

• Make sure to tag us! Twitter: @westernu @westernuProvost @uwofa1; Facebook: @UWOFA, @Western University; Instagram: @uwofaco, @westernuniversity

Send a letter or an email to the President and Provost (cc uwofa):

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

Get in touch with UWOFA’s Communications Officer to make a short video recording of yourself expressing a message of support, which would then be posted to social media.

If you want to get involved in building support for our UWOFA bargaining goals, please contact our Mobilization Chair, David Heap.

**Please Note: There will be a pause in Bargaining Bulletins until late August when negotiations resume. Look for our next update the week of August 22nd.