THE BADGER
Benign unless provoked, according to the ancient natural philosopher Pliny the Elder badgers
work cooperatively to build their lairs; one badger lies down at the entrance to their hole,
holding a stick in its mouth, while other badgers pile earth on its belly. Then two badgers take
hold of the stick with their mouths and drag the loaded badger away.
Volume 3 Issue 23 July 2011
The Badger is the newsletter of the Windsor University Faculty Association.
MOST RECENT UPDATE ON NEGOTIATIONS
FACULTY
ASSOCIATION COMMITTEES
INVOLVED IN NEGOTIATIONS
WUFA’s Negotiating Team has been meeting
regularly with the Administration’s Team for the
month of July, in addition to regular WUFA Team
meetings in discussion of issues and preparation of
documents. The two sides have had both
preliminary and partially detailed discussions on all
non-monetary proposals and have worked in depth
on two or three specific proposals of interest to both
sides.
The Faculty Association has three committees
directed involved in the contract negotiation
process, with a fourth being indirectly involved, the
Special Action Committee. The Negotiating
Committee is the primary committee, and it is
composed of members of two sub-committees, the
Contract Committee and the Negotiating Team. In
addition, WUFA President, Brian E. Brown, is an
ex-officio member of the Negotiating Committee.
Although progress has been made, there have been
no significant milestones reached. The negotiations
have moved on from these initial three areas of
effort without resolution, to three additional areas of
mutual interest. Meetings are planned with the
administration for the rest of this month and are
expected to continue through the month of August.
YOUR NEGOTIATING TEAM
WHAT’S IN THE REMAINDER
NEWSLETTER
OF
THIS
This is the first of several newsletters in which the
Badger will describe actions leading up to the
negotiations, and then explain the negotiating
process itself. This newsletter particularly
summarizes the compositions and roles of WUFA’s
Negotiating Committee, Contract Committee, and
Negotiating Team.
The Negotiating Team consists of a Chief
Negotiator and six members, at least one of whom
must be a sessional member, and likewise a
librarian, who are elected according to Bylaw 8E of
WUFA’s Constitution. Members are Peter
Zimmerman (Co-Chair), Alan Hall (Co-Chair), Phil
Dutton, Donna Eansor, David Guetter, Jennifer
Soutter, Larry Wilson, and Debbie Noble
(Resource). The Negotiating team is responsible for
meeting with the Administration’s Team.
YOUR CONTRACT COMMITTEE
Members of the Contract Committee were elected
by the Faculty Council in accordance with WUFA
Bylaw 8F. Members are Brian E. Brown (Visual
Arts), Donna Eansor (Law), Annette Demers (Law
Library), Alan Hall (Labour Studies), Mark Letteri
(Philosophy), Heather MacIvor (Political Science),
Alan Metcalfe (Retiree, Human Kinetics), Jeff
Noonan (Philosophy), and Peter Zimmerman
(Leddy Library). These members were elected so
that it had an Executive Committee member, a
librarian, a sessional member, an associate member,
and three members-at-large. One additional member
was elected by the membership as Chair.
volunteers have joined, and more are welcome. Its
current members are Pierre Boulos (Chair), Irene
Carter, Susan Gold Smith, Ingrid Helbing, Alan
Phipps, Michael Potter, Julie Sando, and Dean
Goorden (Communication Officer).
After its 2010 Spring election, the Contract
Committee solicited recommendations for new
contract proposals during 2010 Fall.
After
reviewing and finalizing these recommendations,
they were proposed to members of the Executive
Committee, and then to members of the Faculty
Council for review during 2011 Winter. Members
of each committee could in turn propose further
amendments to the contract proposals before
submitting them to the membership for approval.
Remember the membership voted to approve the
full package of Faculty Association contract
proposals in April 2011.
The SAC’s mandate according to WUFA Bylaw 8G
is to plan strategy with respect to Association
actions from the beginning of negotiations; to coordinate activities; to establish how we
communicate both internally and externally; to
organize action; and to report and make
recommendations to the Executive Committee. Now
that contract negotiations have formally begun, the
SAC has also begun to meet, and its primary
activities have so far been in supervising the
Badger’s writing of last four newsletters, and in
monitoring the launch of the new WUFA website.
The members of the SAC obviously hope that their
future activities will be as fun as these, and that they
will not have to do anything in preparation for a
strike vote or strike, even though they are ready and
willing to do this!
THE YEAR LEADING UP TO NEGOTIATIONS
YOUR WUFA PRESIDENT
The year leading up to negotiations was thus most
important, even though the negotiating process had
yet to start. Faculty Association committees were
formed and organized. Data relevant to our possible
contract proposals and the other side’s probable
ones were collected. Recommendations for
proposals were received. And finally, negotiation
strategy and pace was formulated. From the point
of view of the Faculty Association, negotiations
should be smoother and more efficient if its
committees conduct their business democratically
and respectfully in communication with each other.
Finally, WUFA is fortunate during this period of
contract negotiations to have a President, Brian E.
Brown, who knows right from wrong; who can tell
what’s real and what’s imagined; and who’s been
there, seen that, and done it all before. The WUFA
President is an ex-officio member of the contract
committee, but he or she is not a member of the
Negotiating Team. This is because he or she must
have unbiased demeanour if contract negotiations
fall through, and he or she has to meet with the
University President. During this meeting, both
presidents would in principle have no prejudices
from interactions during the negotiating process,
and thus think about the next best steps for
everybody from a fresh perspective.
YOUR SPECIAL ACTION COMMITTEE
A fourth WUFA committee is indirectly involved in
contract negotiations, since the Special Action
Committee (SAC) acts to bridge communication
between the Negotiating Team and Committee, and
the membership as a whole. The SAC’s original
membership was elected at the same time as the
Contract Committee; and since then several new
This newsletter is brought to you by WUFA’s
Special Action Committee. If you have any
questions or comments about either side’s
proposals or this newsletter, please contact us at
[email protected], come to the Kerr House at 366
Sunset Ave, or call us at ext. 3366.