By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 24, 2012
Five universities across British Columbia are currently experiencing job action. This has resulted in picket lines, as well as periodic closures of various services such as book stores and transportation.
University of British Columbia (UBC), Simon Fraser University (SFU), University of Victoria (UVic), Thompson Rivers University (TRU), and University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) are the institutions currently striking. The picket lines are a result of a job action notice levied on each campus earlier in the semester – September 4 at UVic, and October 4 at the remaining schools.
UFV has not submitted any such notice as of publication time, but the possibility of job action at our institution exists.
The issue at hand is that the Collective Agreement for all university staff across the province expired in 2010. Because of this, workers universities have spent two years without discussions surrounding issues such as wage and working conditions.
The lack of a new agreement is compounded by a recent initiative by the provincial government, called the “Post-Secondary Sector Administrative Service Delivery Transformation Project.” This is a project put forth by the Ministry of Advanced Education, with the intent to examine spending in post-secondary institutions. As the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) describes it on their website, “The project will protect the quality of academic programs by challenging the post-secondary sector to reduce administrative costs and any other expenditures that are not related to direct academic program delivery.”
This could affect many jobs across the province, including at UFV. UFV’s president Mark Evered is on the Executive Committee of this project.
The Faculty & Staff Association (FSA) at UFV is currently preparing for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) at which they will discuss issues surrounding the new collective agreement bargaining which will be commencing this fall.
In the FSA newsletter Words & Vision, FSA president and UFV professor Virginia Cooke explains that the EGM is needed due to insufficient attendance at previous smaller meetings but suggests that apathy may not be the problem.
“We call faculty or staff forums and wonder why so few people show up, but . . . probably there’s a conflicting meeting,” she writes.
In the same newsletter, Vickie Grieve, the chief negotiator for the FSA, suggests that the CUPE job action at striking institutions could result in similar action at other campuses.
“As we assess the situation in light of recent contract settlements in the province, it may be that the term ‘pattern bargaining’ can be applied,” she notes.
Citing recent settlements that spread in the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW) from Ford to GM then to Chrysler, she compares them to the CUPE climate at BC universities.
“I will not be surprised if similar patterns emerge in the public-sector in BC,” she states.
At striking institutions, picket lines are causing many services to drop – food service workers, landscapers and parking employees included. Some students are hesitant to cross these lines as well: Rebecca Bertonne, a communications student at SFU, says she would not be crossing the lines.
“I’m frustrated because I pay so much for my education,” Bertonne says. “[The striking] could get so much worse, though. Hopefully they resolve their issues soon.”
Her sentiment was echoed at the Woodwards campus downtown, where a fine arts class on October 18 held their session in a courtyard rather than cross lines.
When asked if she would allow the job action to keep her from writing any tests, Bertonne was undecided.
“I guess it depends on if it will make me lose marks. I can’t afford to retake a class because of striking. It’s just too expensive.”
