Defence Fund Chairperson's Report to CAUT Council
Fall 2002 - (from both incoming Chair Jean-Charles Cachon and outgoing Chair Denise Nevo)
Jean-Charles Cachon
I first would like to thank Denise Nevo for her very effective work as Chair for the past three years. This is my third year as a trustee and I just started as Chair with a red alert on my own campus with the near strike at the University of Sudbury. The new collective agreement has yet to be ratified, which prevents me to give written details. Some of my colleagues worry the damage done by the President of the University of Sudbury over the last few months may be beyond repair. Time will tell. We also had another strike alert at Acadia, which did not end up in a dispute either.
While the past six months have been rather quiet, most of the action occurred during the last trustees' meeting in St. John's on October 19 and 20. At the 2000 annual meeting in Halifax, the Planning and Policy Committee was assigned several questions for study. A report was prepared for the Sudbury meeting last year, but the Board of Trustees referred the report back to the Committee. The questions have been addressed in a comprehensive document prepared by the Committee for this year's meeting, as well as new questions that were submitted to the P and P Committee over the course of the year.
The following were the issues addressed by the P and P Committee:
- A new management, decision-making process and committee structure for the Defence Fund, involving changes to the by-law. This issue has been debated and remains to be discussed again.
- Simultaneous translation (the Committee recommended to continue its use).
- Strike protocol regarding the behaviour of trustees on picket lines when acting as representatives of the Defence Fund.
- A language policy for the Defence Fund website (ensure French translation of all information on the site).
- Dues and strike pay for part-time faculty. Each association should decide to what level to protect its members, particularly part-timers.
- A date of calculation of the number of members of each member association.
- Strike pay for faculty not on strike: the Committee recommended to keep the current policy, i.e. no strike, no strike pay.
- Defence fund payments to finance final offer selection or binding arbitration on salaries: this was the most hotly debated issue;
- A calculation of the effect of raising the per diem rate for trustees. It was found negligible.
- A calculation of the effect of raising the strike fee from $ 40 to $ 50 per day. It was found as non-threatening for the financial position of the Defence Fund after two years.
- Examining whether the Defence Fund is now fully funded. This question seems to receive a ‘no' answer from almost all trustees, as strikes tend to get longer. Some would like to see strike pay increases before declaring the Fund fully funded.
Trustees finally asked the Planning and Policy Committee to consider again the question of setting up an Executive Committee within the By-law and also to study the possibility of meeting at another time during the year than October, starting in 2004. Our next annual meeting will take place in Regina, in October 2003 and Charlottetown has been selected as the venue for 2004.
Respectfully submitted by
Jean-Charles Cachon, Laurentian.
Chair, CAUT Defence Fund
November 18, 2002
Denise Nevo
As I have just given up my seat as Chair of the CAUT Defence Fund to Jean-Charles Cachon, from the Laurentian University Faculty Association, I would like to take this opportunity to say a few words.
When Martin King was Chair of the Defence Fund (1993-96), his union (University of Manitoba Faculty Association) went on a long and bitter strike in October 1995. This was the first time a strike was taking place at the Chair's institution. It is during that strike that the famous "Flying Pickets" were born.
Martin was succeeded as Chair by Bob Rosebrugh (1996-99). There was also a bitter strike at his institution, Mount Allison University, while he was Chair, in January 1999.
When I was elected Chair in October 1999, I was persuaded that a strike would not fail to take place at Mount Saint Vincent University ("Jamais deux sans trois", as the French say it). However, I managed to finish my three years without having to go through this painful experience (which we did experience in 1989 at MSVUFA, though).
Like a "bad gene" which sometimes skips a generation but never disappears, the phenomenon of "a strike at the Chair's institution" may very well reappear this Fall as the Laurentian University Faculty Association, University of Sudbury Bargaining Unit, braces for a strike less than a month after Jean-Charles took over as Chair.
I would like to wish good luck to Jean-Charles as the newly elected Chair of the Defence Fund, and also as President of LUFA as it faces the current labour dispute. I would like to extend once again my very sincere thanks to all those who have helped me over the past three years, in particular to former Chair and former treasurer, Bill Schrank, and to former Chair and current Treasurer, Bob Rosebrugh. My sincere thanks also go to the Secretary of the Defence Fund, Gord Piché, to Nancy Gordon, Conference Coordinator, and to the CAUT staff. I truly wouldn't have been able to fulfil my duties without their unfaltering assistance. I would also like to thank all the Trustees who have placed their trust in me as they elected me three times at the helm of the Corporation, and who have worked alongside me, in their various capacities, for the past three years. It has been a tremendous experience for me. You have all taught me a great deal, and as a result, I have grown much, as a person and as a labour activist. THANK YOU ALL!
Denise Nevo
Past Chair and Trustee for Mount Saint Vincent University Faculty Association
November 2002