YUFA eNewsletter September 2015

Bargaining 2015

Bargaining Update #5:

Report on August Bargaining Sessions

YUFA’s Bargaining Team has met several times with the Employer in the last weeks of August. We have now heard some response to most of our proposals. The parties remain far apart and the Team is disappointed in slow progress. The Employer has so far rejected important proposals on collegial governance, such as open searches for deans and senior academic …

Special Membership Meeting on Bargaining, September 22, 2015

Tuesday, September 22, 2015 10 a.m. - 12 noon 152 Founders College Topic: Bargaining Report and Discussion This is an important juncture in the collective bargaining process and there are a number of sessions with the employer scheduled over the next few weeks. For this reason, the YUFA Executive has decided to hold a Special Membership Meeting to discuss progress …

University Restructuring

YUFA Responds to the Draft Integrated Institutional Resource Plan

YUFA has been monitoring the restructuring initiatives following in the wake of the AAPR exercise, which concluded nearly a year ago. As we have consistently told the administration, one of our greatest concerns with these initiatives has been their reliance on a top-down, non-collegial approach to formulating academic priorities. It is also premised on a narrative of financial crisis that …

YUFA's Facilities Survey Reveals Declining Support, Increasing Workloads

On August 13, 2015, YUFA emailed invitations to members to complete a survey asking for information about the impact of changes in York’s working environment on members’ work lives. The extraordinary response rate demonstrates the importance of this issue to members, with 468 respondents taking the time to provide feedback. Here are some key highlights: Nearly 80% of respondents responded …

York University Libraries: A Catalogue of Cuts

by William Denton Associate Librarian and YUFA Steward, York University Libraries Faculty members learned a few weeks ago that one of the many small services the library offers was cut. It used to be that if an instructor needed a DVD for a class they could get it delivered. That service has been stopped. The instructor now has to get …

Member Advisories

Teaching Evaluations, Strike-Affected Semesters, and Tenure & Promotion

In response to pressure from YUFA through the JCOAA, the Employer has agreed that the inclusion in tenure and promotion files of student course evaluations for courses offered during the strike-affected 2015 Winter term will be optional. Members who taught during the Winter 2015 semester may decide whether these course evaluations should be included or excluded in consideration of their teaching. File …

Employer's Unilateral Changes to Portability Provisions of York Pension Plan

Richard Wellen, YUFA President Members of the York University Pension Plan (YUPP) have always had a number of options for how their pension would be paid upon retirement. One such option includes the right to transfer the “commuted value”—or monetary equivalent—of one's pension entitlement out of the plan entirely. However, on December 11, 2014, the employer announced that it had …

Calls for Involvement

YUFA to march in Toronto's Labour Day Parade, September 7, 2015

Monday September 7th is Labour Day. For generations, unionized workers in Toronto have used this as an occasion to put on a show of strength and commitment to economic and social justice in a huge parade. As a member of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, YUFA has often participated in this event. This year, as we continue our …

Bargaining Support Committee Meeting, September 24, 2015

In Spring 2015, YUFA established a Bargaining Support Committee and called on all interested members to come forward to participate. The Committee has the important task of informing YUFA members around the issues in our 2015 round of bargaining and mobilizing support for our Bargaining Team as they seek to negotiate a strong collective agreement that improves our work lives and …

Faculty Club Working Group seeks volunteers

York faculty have been without a faculty club for some time, a situation that has increasingly aggravated YUFA members (as evident in an open letter initiated by colleagues decrying the decline of university facilities and now soliciting faculty signatures). Spaces for social and collegial exchange are essential to the mission and vitality of a university. YUFA has long pressed the …

YUFA Executive Committee:

By-Election for Equity Officer (1 of 2)

Notice of Vacancy: By-Election for YUFA Officer Position Fourth Call Nominations are now being accepted for the position of Equity Officer (1 of 2). Term of office ends 31 May 2016. Candidates for election as Officers of the Association shall submit written statements of their qualifications, goals, and interest in serving. Where two or more candidates stand for an Officer position, …

Call for Nominations:

Joint Committee on Affirmative Action

Fifth Call: YUFA is seeking three members for the Joint Implementation Committee on Affirmative Action for Faculty and Librarians (Article 12.22). The mandate of this subcommittee is to ensure that units conform to the Article 12.21 criteria for selecting candidates and to ensure that units actively seek out and give fair consideration in their selection processes to candidates designated in the …

CAUT Forum for Aboriginal Academic Staff, November 6-7, 2015

The Canadian Association of University Teachers will be holding its 5th Forum for Aboriginal Academic Staff on November 6-7, 2015 at the Radisson Hotel Downtown in Winnipeg, Manitoba. From the CAUT's website: "In light of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Report, this year's forum will allow participants to collectively consider: The implications of austerity measures on Aboriginal academic staff …

YUFA Members Discussion Forum

In the new website, launched in April 2015, YUFA included a Members' Area that allows all YUFA members to engage in discussion about the issues we collectively face at York. The members’ forum has a very user-friendly interface and a streamlined set of categories to which members can post and subscribe:

• Collective Agreement: Bargaining and JCOAA

• Collegiality and Governance at YU

• Budgets and Finance (including Pensions)

• Issues in Higher Education

• Community

Although YUFA members have many ways of communicating with each other, this is the only space that includes everyone and can allow the whole membership to engage in information-sharing and strategic discussions. Members can log on to the site from the home page or the Members' Area (in the banner across the top of the YUFA website). Your user name is the first part of your @yorku.ca email address (e.g., the user name for rwellen@yorku.ca would be ‘rwellen’). If have forgotten your password or have not yet received one, use the prompt in the log-on box to create a new one.