News 06/17/09

1. The New Collective Agreement
2. Ergonomics
3. Laurentian@Georgian: Meeting
4. Welcome and Thanks
5. LUSU Negotiations

Coming Soon. A Message from the Chief Negotiator about the new Collective Agreement: Members have been understandably concerned about not yet receiving the new 2008-2111 Collective Agreement. Those of us representing LUFA have shared this concern for months since its approval. We have continued to work hard to see editing completed and the full finalized Collective Agreement made available to all members. The reasons for the delay are several, and some I mentioned at the last LUFA membership meeting.

For now I would like to emphasize the positive news, which is, at last, that the English text of the Collective Agreement--all 145 pages--has been finalized. Equally important, the French text is nearly complete and the Administration, through Dr Patrice Sawyer, has agreed to three meetings in June necessary to finish the work on the French text.

So: the new Collective Agreement, in both English and French, will be posted on the LUFA website in July. The printed copies will take a little longer, but should be available in August.

Also positive is the fact that the new Collective Agreement has been substantially re-organized to make it more clear in structure and user-friendly. Lee-Ann Fielding at the LUFA Office has inputted many hundreds of changes and done meticulous work through no less than five text drafts to help ensure that numbering, terminology and cross-references are accurate and consistent. The index is being expanded, which work is being completed by Desmond Maley of the Library. Soon we should be able to find sections and clauses more quickly, whether in English or in French, and also, when needed, to move more easily from one language to the other. During the editing process we also developed a style guide to help make future editorial work easier and more consistent.

The Collective Agreement defines the basic terms of our working conditions, academic freedom, rights and responsibilities at Laurentian. As you review and use the new Collective Agreement, I would appreciate your comments and ideas on things that can be further improved in its content and form.

David Leadbeater

Ergonomics: A Message from the Director of Communications: Seventy-five members-full-time and sessionals-have benefitted from Phase I of the Association's Ergonomic Program. I would like to thank the Purchasing Office, and especially Ray Coutu and Carmen Armstrong, for successfully managing the ordering and installation process since by all reports everything went smoothly.

True, in a project of this magnitude there was inevitably a very small number of problems, for example that a member did not get a desk when s/he thought one had been ordered-or in another instance when the desk which arrived was too big for the space available.

Most of these issues cannot be resolved on a one-off basis. Rather they must wait until Phase II of the program has been completed in the early fall. In this phase, nearly $50,000 will be available, made up of $15,000 left over from Phase I and an additional $35,000 to be added in July. While Phase II will target members returning from sabbatical as well as those who missed out during Phase I, it will also address whatever problems have been left over from Phase I.

If you have not already done so, please let me know about any problems you have so we can try to resolve. And.for those of you who did not take the opportunity to apply this spring, you will have another chance in this fall. Watch for the notice to members that I will send out.

Ashley Thomson

Laurentian University at Georgian College:Most LUFA members are aware that Laurentian has been involved in a formal partnership with Georgian College since 2001. LUFA filed a policy grievance that argues that Laurentian has contracted out bargaining unit work to a third party, which is in LUFA's opinion, a violation of the Collective Agreement. Added to this complex mix, the partnership agreement between Laurentian and Georgian is due for renewal.

Any LUFA member with an interest in the Georgian campus is invited to attend the next LUFA Board meeting on Monday June 22. An "Order-of-the Day" aimed at discussing Georgian issues has been set for 1:30 p.m. The meeting will take place in the Library Instruction Room.

Welcome and Thanks: Ian Maclennan's term as Board representative from Thorneloe has expired, and so we welcome. Guy Charbonneau as his replacement. Thanks to Ian-and thanks as well to Norm Cheadle (Humanities) and Ravin Narain (Science and Engineering) who have ended their current term after a year of service. Both will be missed.

LUSU Negotiations: LUSU is currently in negotiations for a new collective agreement which will replace the one which expires at the end of this month.

The university has asked us for about 75 concessions to our collective agreement. We only have 37 Articles, so you should be able to discern already that this is bad. They want to remove our seniority rights, lay off whomever they want to, hire whomever they want to, tamper with our sick leave plan, and they aren't offering us any money in an across-the-board increase. They might as well have asked us to decertify.

I received a 94% strike mandate at our General Membership Meeting last Monday, 8 June. This had great impact at bargaining on Tuesday, and the university was forced to come back to us with a new proposal. It still has all the bad stuff in it, but they've dropped about 19 of their takeaways. We are insisting that at the next meeting they come back to us again with a new proposal that is at least close to our proposal, which only contained 12 items. As you can see, it is very slow going, and I'm not optimistic. The university appears to want to solve all of their financial problems on the backs of LUSU members.

We hope that LUSU has your support, as we give you ours.

In solidarity,
Tracy Oost