Issues Students Should Know About

After two days of talks with the mediator, Mr. Kevin Burkett, it became clear to the BUFA negotiating team that we were not going to reach an agreement with the administration.

The mediator will file a No-Board Report and 17 days after that filing, BUFA and Brock faculty will be in a legal strike position.

This is the last thing that I want to happen! I want to teach my students, to see them succeed. I want my students to get the full value of their tuition. But how much more can Brock faculty take from administration?

Here are some facts that students ought to know:

1. Every other Collective Agreement has been reached by negotiation in the 42 years of Brock's history.
2. Brock faculty have been without a contract since July 1.
3. There have been more than 38 all day meetings, beginning in April. We are still not even close to an agreement.
4. At a meeting as late as October 12, the administrative bargaining team came to the meeting without having done the required preparation to continue talks. Students know what happens when they come to class unprepared -- why is it different for a bargaining team?
5. Brock administration is demanding more Instructional Limited Term Appointments (contract staff who teach only) teach more courses at Brock. That would be cheaper for the administration in the long term, but think about the vulnerability of contract instructors who can be terminated at the end of a contract if the university found someone cheaper.
6. Brock administration is demanding that the Vice-President, Academic chair any future promotion and tenure committees. This would give the VPA a vote to break a tie. It would also put the VPA in the position of being able to influence committee members simply by virtue of the fact that the chair is the Vice-President of the University! Students must understand that promotion and tenure is a peer-review process, and administrators are no longer peers of academic faculty. Rather, they are necessarily in a category apart from faculty. When is the last time you heard a senior administrator worrying that his teaching evaluations might bring down his merit? When is the last time a senior administrator expressed concern that his service record might affect his salary? that his research record could affect his career?
7. While Brock administration makes faculty a financial offer that would keep us as the lowest paid university in Ontario, that same administration has demanded changes in promotion and tenure criteria that are the toughest anywhere in the country. This would mean that we are not good enough to be paid adequately, and furthermore we are so bad we must be kept from acquiring promotions and tenure. So how can Brock become this great comprehensive university that attracts the best of the best with this track record?
8. BUFA, in its desire to avoid a strike and reach an agreement, suggested that if the administration could come to an agreement on the non-monetary issues on the table, BUFA would consider submitting all monetary issues to binding arbitration. The university refused this offer.