Return to work protocol

Well, it’s been tough on the body to get back to the office and struggle to sit through long periods of time.  I squirm and shift from one position to the next trying to get some relief from the numbness creeping into my lower limbs and yes – my behind.  3 weeks on the picket lines seems to have reconfigured my body to function a little differently.  Thank goodness the same didn’t happen to my mind.

So, after it almost all over, big question remains – was it worth it?  Some say yay and some say nay.  I think we could’ve done more, gotten a better “deal” if we stuck it out for another week or two but the number of people crossing or threatening to cross seems to have hastened the settlement and likely influenced the outcome.  Too bad…I don’t regret it, I’ve learned a lot and even though it cost me nearly 3 weeks’ salary, I have no regrets.

Negotiate a college settlement

This was in the Welland Tribune today (Sept 15). Thank you Betty Ann (NC Instructor)!!!

Negotiate a college settlement

This letter supports the Niagara College support staff presently involved in a province-wide work stoppage.
… These people are integral to what we do every day, and their desire to strike to try to stop the continued hiring of “part time” staff when full-time workers are necessary is very selfless.
I do believe that there is a “union-busting” theme moving throughout North America because many people believe that unions have “gone too far”. I don’t know if this is true or not.
I only know that unions came into existence because management people treated their workers so poorly (including child labour; aren’t we glad that is no longer allowed?), and banding together to fight for better working conditions is what unions did.
Now, the hiring theme is “part-time and contract work,” which requires no benefits be paid. What a saving for the hiring organization.
Many parents of my generation came through a system where we were paid a decent wage and received benefit packages that made our lives much easier. These were not offered to us by our employers because we were such good workers, but won through union negotiation, and yes, sometimes by striking.
Today’s parents are sending their children to college in hopes of getting a better education and hopefully better jobs. Their education will be great, but they must be prepared to work contractually because that is where the hiring practices are going, and it looks like there will be no unions to help them.
I guess it is an evolutionary process, but I feel the student’s who may not be supporting our striking staff should have some insight into what their future may look like.
Unless, of course, they can get a management job— there is no part-time or contract management jobs that I am aware of. That would mean they have no benefit package.
Please go back and negotiate a collegial settlement so that we can get our much needed support staff back. Betty Ann Chandler Niagara-on-the-Lake

Accepting economic realities

Support Staff has been asked toaccept economic realities in this bargaining and personally I feel insulted by the request.  I’ve been accepting economic realities since I started working in my position.  I’ve been using the same PC for years and it is no longer even adequate for the work that I do and the programs I use for my day-to-day tasks.  Our IT department is stretched beyond belief and can no longer keep up so they can’t be relied on for much more than emergencies.  Each day I spend an average of 30+ minutes unnecessarily waiting for programs to open or close or rebooting my system when it hangs.  It takes 5 minutes to get the beast booted up first thing in the morning and about 10 minutes for my email program to load.  By the time I open all that I use on daily basis, it’s 9:00am – it’s unreal but I (and many others) have been required to attend 3 “managing multiple priorities” workshops at the cost of my department as part of our Professional Development. The cost of one of those workshops could outfit everyone in the dept with a new, state of the art computer. I’ve asked for a newer/more robust machine repeatedly over the last 3 years and have been told, yes – in the next fiscal year while the management takes of on yet another retreat or conference in some sunny part of the continent.  My work load has increased multiple times over the last 10 years and I am still required to accomplish it in a 7.25 hour day of which almost an hour is spent trying to get my computer to do what I need it to do.  Yeah, I HAVE accepted economic realities because I do it, I get it done.

Don’t let the employer stay away from the bargaining table

 Remind them every day by taking one minute to send an email to all the College Presidents and the Minister of Education demanding the employer return to the bargaining table. If only the 674 members in this group emailed each of the College Presidents every day that would be 16,176 emails a day. THAT would get their attention. Imagine if all 8000 members did it – that would be 192,000 emails a day!! I’ve made it easy for you – just copy and paste the following:

barkerg@algonquincollege.com, macdonk@algonquincollege.com, gilletr@algonquincollege.com, denis.hubert@borealc.on.ca, Sylvia.barnard@cambriancollege.ca, george.burton@canadorec.on.ca, abuller@centennialcollege.ca, jtibbits@conestogac.on.ca, madder@confederationc.on.ca, don.lovisa@durhamcollege.ca, hrundle@fanshawec.ca, ttilly@flemingc.on.ca, asado@georgebrown.ca, btamblyn@georgianc.on.ca, john.davies@humber.ca, libourg@lacitec.on.ca, tonyh@lambton.on.ca, mpiercy@loyalistc.on.ca, rob.macisaac@mohawkcollege.ca, shudson@niagaracollege.ca, gibbonsf@northern.on.ca, Ron.common@saultcollege.ca, Jstrasser@stclaircollege.ca, cwhitaker@sl.on.ca, david.agnew@senecac.on.ca, Jeff.zabudsky@sheridaninstitute.ca; leonacampaign@gmail.com; ldombrowsky.mpp@liberal.ola.org

Here is the message I send in my emails:
Shame on you for leaving the College Support Workers on the picket lines because your bargaining team refuses to bargain in good faith. Shame!

STRIKE FACTS FOR STUDENTS

1. Management walked away from talks.
2. The union has invited them to meet several times since. Management REFUSES to meet.
3. We are fighting for job security. There are more part time workers than full time. Part time workers don’t get benefits, raises, a pension, work contract to contract (month to month, semester to semester.)
4. We are college graduates. Just like you, we want good jobs, job security, benefits and a pension.
5. We are NOT asking for a raise. We are asking for “cost of Living”. Anything lower than that is a pay cut.
6. Managers are getting 4% to 10% raises and bonuses.
7. Our president makes $332,576, with taxable benefits of $31,550. That is equal to is at least 6 support staff if not more.
8. Management wants to pay students MINIMUM wage rather than a FAIR WAGE for student positions at the college.
9. We want to be inside doing our jobs, helping you, not on the picket line.

WHAT CAN YOU DO???

TELL YOUR COLLEGE PRESIDENT YOU WANT US BACK.  CONTACT YOUR MPP OR THE PREMIER OF ONTARIO.

Let’s talk numbers

In a letter to full-time support staff at AC, the acting president stated; “….There have been many public comments made that inaccurately reflect the positions of the colleges on the use of part-time employees, concessions from employees and two-tier employment provisions. Let me deal directly with these matters.
The issue of part-time employment has not been part of the discussion by either the colleges or the union.
No provision in the colleges’ proposals would increase the use of part-time employees. In fact, the existing collective agreement gives preference to full-time over part-time employment.
The union has no proposals on the table that would alter the use of part-time employees. The OPSEU bargaining team is well aware that the colleges have actually increased the number of full-time support staff over the past two years – up from 6,751 in 2008 to 6,936 in 2010.
Furthermore, let me confirm that the colleges are not asking for any concessions from employees or any item that would result in two-tier employment conditions…..”

I, and many others, beg to differ.  The union has proposed to eliminate the conditions in the letter of understanding dealing with contract workers but the Colleges are refusing to admit it and are constantly diverting the attention to wage increases.  Look at the numbers above, if you do the math that means 185 positions over 2 years among 24 Colleges, 3.8 people per college.  AC has 3 campuses, Woodroffe Campus consist of 12 buildings, 2 residences and a sports facility to serve 19000 full time students – do you think 522 support staff employees is enough?

Hello world!

To expedite this I am copying from a post by a colleague – all credit to Ryan Patrick Way:

“College support staff consist of, student, employer & faculty outreach coordinators, mental health nurses and workers, academic enrichment and support specialists, IT services technicians, college library staff, IT programmers and analysts, student admissions staff, specialized school classroom support personnel, payroll staff, finance and accounting staff, OSAP administration and distribution staff, career advisors, internship co-ordinators, student life staff, IT internet access & wireless infrastructure technicians, classroom audio & visual support technicians, student liaisons and counsellors, shipping and receiving personnel, lab technicians, facilities and maintenance workers, IT server specialists, college bookstore staff, college purchasing staff, classroom and central scheduling personnel, student health and wellness and athletic support staff, college communications and telephony technicians, student registration staff, continuing education staff, etc, etc… and many, many more…

At many colleges, services such as janitorial and housekeeping, groundskeeping, food services, and others have already been sub-contracted out to private companies. Campuses expand, student numbers increase, and facilities and technologies are constantly upgraded and increased. Full-time support staff numbers have not proportionally increased, and in some cases have decreased. Everyone has been doing a lot ‘more for less’ for a significant time without an end to this trend in sight. How many more services can be out-sourced, cut-back, under-resourced and under-staffed without sacrificing a quality, safe, meaningful education? We do care.

Many college support staff consist of college graduates. Many students will soon be working with the colleges after graduation. A mutually negotiated contract addressing all parties needs, is for our benefit as well as theirs. Any ‘two tier’ proposal items such as probationary periods, reducing the ability for the union to adequately represent it’s members, the increase in part-time positions, and the items regarding a regular work week, shifts, work days, and notification periods as originally suggested by management representatives, would negatively impact us, as well as these students who will be the support staff of tomorrow. Good jobs today, good jobs, tomorrow!

Saying that in this day and age we don’t need unions, is like saying we don’t need police because we have laws. People question the need for unions in this ‘global economy’. When 40% of world’s wealth is owned by 1% of population (CBC News Dec. 5/06) there is even more of a need to protect workers rights. Managements wages have steadily increased, and in some cases increased dramatically. For example the college president’s salary has increased $88,256.00 (2008 – $181,370.22, 2009 – $248,285.96, 2010 – $269,626.00) in the last three years, a 48% increase, the VP of HR’s salary has increased $11,971.00 (2008 – $152,415.54, 2009 – $158,436.17, 2010 – $164,386.24) in the last three years, a 7.85% increase, the VP of facilities & ancillary services salary has increased $10,148.00 (2008 – $160,413.63, 2009 – $165,999.14, 2010 – $170,561.09) in the last three years, a 6.3% increase, etc. etc. You can find the salary disclosure information at: http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/salarydisclosure/2011/colleg11.html.

Recent management ‘tactics’ and contract proposals, will lead to an erosion of our rights and benefits that many previous negotiating teams fought tirelessly to obtain for us through the collective bargaining process.
Council’s tactics and slick PR machine are in my opinion, designed on dividing our membership and breaking the union (this is not exclusive to CAATS staff, but a recent trend of corporate and political attacks on unionized labour). The Council can force a contract vote any time. Why don’t they? Either they are afraid of losing that vote, or they want to break us through division and attrition. Can we really afford to let that happen?

For me it comes down to who can you believe? The high paid executives and lawyer types, or our fellow support staff workers?
The council negotiating team is made up of very well paid executives and a Hicks Morley lawyer.
Our duly elected union negotiating team is made up of an OPSEU representative and college support staff workers, like the rest of us who have committed themselves to our cause. After this is all over, they will going back to their support staff positions like the rest of us. They are bargaining for the duly elected contract demands polled from support staff members. Who has our vested interests at heart?

Unions have historically provided the basis of what has became basic labour laws and have always been proponents and lobbyists of workers issues such as workplace safety, fair wages, adequate benefits, pensions that allow people to retire with dignity, raising minimum wages, etc. To me, very noble causes and still are.

The public sector should set the standard when it comes to job creation, secure full-time jobs, benefits, pensions, etc. If the public sector and government can not lead the way in providing good full-time jobs today, who do we look up to for secure jobs tomorrow? Good jobs today, better jobs tomorrow!

The Council has stated that support staff positions have risen from 6,751 in 2008 to 6,936 in 2010. Support staff numbers have increased by 185 in two years across 24 Ontario colleges. Does this even remotely sound adequate?
Support staff increases 2006 -2010:
Full time – 4.9% increase
Part time – 8.91% increase
Admin Staff – 11.72% increase
How much has student enrolment increased in the same time period?
How much square footage of space has colleges increased in size?
Has the amount of technology in the classroom increased?

Our bargaining team is willing to go go back to the table and negotiate, the Council is willing to go back to the table and NOT negotiate. We the members, must put pressure on the Council, college management and politicians to get the Council back to the table and negotiate in good faith.

By the number of ‘honks’ we get, the outpouring of support in the form of food, drinks, and other items, support from local labour associations and union brothers & sisters, and the solid support from faculty must tell us something? We are not alone.

We are OPSEU CAATS – Ontario College Support Staff. The media may portray us inaccurately, the public may be uninformed as to who we are and what we do, and the Council may be out to break us, but we know the truth!
Our jobs do count. Our jobs do have value. We do care!”