Faculty Association negotiates new collective agreement
By Hannah Larking
News Editor
August 6, 2008
 The University of Windsor’s Faculty Association is currently in negotiations with university administration over a new collective agreement.
According to Dr. Brian Brown, Faculty Association president, the last four-year agreement expired on June 30, 2008. “We are currently negotiating a new collective agreement, or terms and conditions for faculty and librarians, contract academic staff and sessionals,” Brown explained.
The Faculty Association, also known as WUFA, defines itself as a democratic, membership-based organization of professors, librarians and other academics working with others and for themselves to promote their rights and improve the quality of academic life at the University of Windsor.
Negotiations began on June 3, and both parties have been meeting continuously since then. We were meeting every day, with the exception of Sundays, until July 8, said Brown.
“On July 8 the administration filed for conciliation, and so negotiations stopped at that point. The conciliator has just arrived in town as of [July 28],” Brown added. “When negotiations reach an impasse, either party can call on the Ministry of Labour to appoint a conciliator and that is what the administration did.”
Brown hopes the conciliator will help get talks going again. “He’s here to kick start negotiations and help us get beyond the impasse that we are at, at the moment,” Brown explained.
Common topics of discussion at these meetings include salary, benefits, working conditions and academic freedom. “All issues are open in the terms of a collective agreement.”
In addition to this, changes in legislature may also have been made in the last four years that affect the agreement. An example of this is the provincial law that was altered for retirement. “Professors and librarians can teach past 65 now [with the change in the legislation]. There is no normal retirement date,” Brown explained.
While the negotiations do hope to add some new things to the agreement, a lot of the talks revolve around improving conditions that are already in place, such as benefits and salary. “There is a scale increase that goes along with our monetary proposals, plus there is what’s called PTR or Promotions through the Ranks—we have a proposal on that too. Basically you put all of these things together, and try to negotiate a collective agreement where the terms and conditions are met and both the administration and the Faculty Association are satisfied before we sign off,” said Brown.
For more information about the University of Windsor Faculty Association, visit there website at uwindsor.ca/wufa.
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