Dear UTFA colleagues,
We hope you are enjoying the summer as much as possible. We are writing today with three important updates.
Bargaining Update
Throughout the spring and summer, your UTFA Negotiating Team has continued bilateral (direct) salary, benefits, workload, and policy negotiations with the University Administration. While we have made some progress and talks continue, the forward movement has been very slow or even non-existent on important issues. We share your frustration with the delay in obtaining the improvements UTFA members deserve. Starting on October 24, 2024, UTFA and the Administration will participate in formal mediation of all unresolved matters related to salary, benefits, and workload within the constraints of Article 6 of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Arbitrator Eli Gedalof.
To represent members’ interests effectively, the UTFA Team is committed to advancing proposals at mediation that are based on accurate, complete information about pertinent topics such as PTR processes, unit workload assignments, healthcare benefits, and housing. To fulfill this commitment, we have sent the Administration numerous information disclosure requests that are consistent with the Administration’s obligations under the MoA. The Administration’s compliance with these requests has been less than satisfactory. As a result, UTFA is meeting with Arbitrator Gedalof today, August 9th, to advance UTFA’s position on these outstanding disclosure requests with the hope of resolving these matters well in advance of this fall’s mediation.
Petition in Support of York University Faculty Association (YUFA)
Our colleagues at YUFA have been in difficult negotiations with the York University Administration for some time now. As YUFA explains in this recent press release, the Administration has made multiple false claims that it is facing a financial crisis and is using these claims to demand major concessions. The Administration has adopted very aggressive bargaining tactics, but YUFA has successfully organized its members to stand united. To support its bargaining efforts, YUFA is asking colleagues to sign this petition in solidarity with the 1,650 faculty, academic librarians, archivists, and post-doctoral visitors it represents. For more information, please see YUFA’s bargaining updates here, as well as this statement from the Canadian Association of University Teachers.
Appeal to Support the Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk Program
Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk (PSSAR) was formally registered as a not-for-profit corporation in March 2024 and is run by a group of concerned academics in Canada, including several UTFA members, who wish to make a difference in the lives of Palestinian students and scholars who are at grave risk, with an initial emphasis on Gaza. As we shared at the June UTFA Council meeting, UTFA Executive is supporting PSSAR in its conversations with University Administration in establishing a scholarship to support Palestinian students (similar to the $1 million in matching funds the University provided to support Ukrainian students through the Scholars at Risk Program); setting tuition and ancillary fees for PSSAR-supported students to domestic rates; and expediting the admissions process. To that end, we are meeting with senior Administration members in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we invite you to review PSSAR’s website to consider whether you are able to sponsor a scholar or student.
Best,
Jeff Bale
UTFA Vice-President, University and External Affairs
Terezia Zorić
UTFA President