UTFA Bargaining Updates
December 5, 2011
The current Chief Justice of Ontario, Warren Winkler, served as the chair of an interest arbitration board at this university in 2006. In his award, Chief Justice Winkler emphasized that there are two overriding principles governing interest arbitrators serving under UTFA's Memorandum of Agreement: the replication principle, and the "mutual commitment of the University and the Association to ensuring that the University is a leader among the world's best teaching and research institutions of higher learning." As he stated, those two principles are "inextricably interrelated," since "any attempt to replicate an agreement that might have been reached by the parties [at the University of Toronto] has to take into account the fact that the parties would be bargaining on common ground with respect to their mutual, commendable devotion to the excellence and reputation of the university."
Bargaining Report No. 3 - Interest Arbitration & Response to Provost - December 5, 2011
November 15, 2011
“Our proposal does not seek to insert the faculty association into the substance of academic planning. We are only proposing procedures that would ensure adequate participation, accountability, and transparency for faculty and librarians.
There has been no real response in bargaining to UTFA’s proposal on procedural aspects of academic planning despite the fact that the proposal was tabled in June.”
UTFA Bargaining Update - November 15, 2011
November 15, 2011
"Recent events suggest there is a need for explicit elaboration as to what exactly collegial self-governance means, how it is linked to academic freedom, and how in turn governance in academic planning is related to and condition academic excellence. The stakes are high.
The proposed new policy attempts to specify procedural aspects of academic planning, elaborating on important and well-worn but as present often poorly defined language such as “collegiality” and “shared governance” for faculty and librarians in academic planning initiatives."
Bargaining Report No. 20 to Members - November 15, 2011
September 29, 2011
“Claiming that we are proposing essentially to contract out the drafting of policies on tenure to a third party is simply misleading. It flies in the face of how interest arbitration actually works, and simply ignores the fact that UTFA directly authored and tabled proposed changes to tenure policies in the current round based on extensive input from members, and now seeks to negotiate these fairly with the Administration.”
Explaining UTFA's Proposed Revisions to Tenure Policy - September 29, 2011
September 23, 2011
“Does interest arbitration really “hand over” control of the university to an independent third party?
Again, simply, no … we seek a chair with independence and experience in the functioning of universities, with expertise in adjudication and administrative law, and with necessary independence from both parties, to help ensure that tenure and panel deliberations and decisions are proper and fair. Any claims to the contrary are intended to create confusion over what we have actually proposed.”
UTFA FAQ re Frozen Policies, Article 6, Unilateralism - September 23, 2011
September 23, 2011
"We welcome the opportunity for a collegial discussion and debate among faculty and librarians over the adequacy of the existing Memorandum of Agreement when it comes to matters other than compensation and workload. While the Administration has recently entered the public debate, at the end of the day the decision about whether the existing Memorandum serves the needs of the faculty and librarians and of the university as a whole, and about what kind of change might be required, is one that is ours to make.”
UTFA email letter to members re negotiation issues - September 23, 2011
September 14, 2011
Letter to Angela Hildyard explaining the origins and the rationale of UTFA’s proposal to make all terms and conditions negotiable with mediation/arbitration.
UTFA letter to Administration re "All Terms & Conditions" - September 14, 2011