Defence Fund President's Report to CAUT Council – Fall 2006

Defence Fund President's Report to CAUT Council
Fall 2006

The CAUT Defence Fund (DF) is pleased to report on a very busy period since the last CAUT Council in the spring of 2006.

Four more academic staff unions have joined the Defence Fund. In August, the DF accepted the applications of Nipissing University Faculty Association (NUFA) and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine Faculty Association (NOSMFA). Trustees from both of these institutions participated in the 2006 annual meeting in Toronto in October. In September, the DF received applications from the St. Francis Xavier University Association of University Teachers (StFXAUT) and l’Association des Professeurs du Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface (APCuSB); they were both accepted at the annual meeting. A Trustee from APCuSB was present and participated in meeting. There are now 37 individual faculty unions from across Canada, representing a combined membership of approximately 17,000, in the ranks of the DF. One other fairly large university faculty association has recently certified, and we hope to explore the question of membership in the DF with them early in 2007.

In August, the DF Trustees approved strike benefits for the University of Regina Faculty Association (URFA) in respect of their Administrative, Professional and Technical Employees Bargaining Unit (APT). Thankfully, bargaining came to a satisfying conclusion before any job action had to be taken. In October, benefits were approved for l’Association des Professeurs et Bibliotecaires de l’Universite Sainte-Anne (APBUSA). Members of the APBUSA had been without a contract since the Spring of 2004. Remarkably, a new collective agreement was reached with the Employer within 72 hours of the approval of DF benefits!

It is almost certain, however, that the DF will be faced with unhappier situations in the very near future. A number of collective agreements expired in the last few months, and bargaining toward new agreements has not been smooth in far too many of those cases. In his address to the DF’s annual meeting, CAUT Executive Director Jim Turk alluded to a very troubling pattern. It was his observation that Employers seem, as a group, to be intent on purposefully taking on faculty unions rather than bargain fairly with them. As of the writing of this report, no fewer than eight faculty unions have either taken strike votes (with very solid mandates from their respective memberships) or are seriously considering taking one. At the annual meeting in October, DF Trustees approved strike benefits for faculty unions at Carleton University (CUASA), St. Mary’s University (SMUFA), and Brock University (BUFA).

With assets of over $18 million, the DF is well-positioned to stand in solidarity with any faculty union that needs to stand up for their rights through job action. At the annual meeting, Trustees voted to increase daily strike benefits per member from $75 to $60. The Trustees also decided to increase the frequency of “Flying Picket” days of solidarity (they will now be held each week for at least the first three weeks of a strike, rather than at the ends of weeks one and three), and increase the number of flying picketers that expenses will be paid for. As always, the DF will guarantee a loan of up to $1 million, and present the striking association with the ever popular “Giant Cheque”.

Other policy initiatives that the annual meeting approved were: 1) a modest liberalization of the investment rules, so that bonds with maturity dates of 6-10 years can be bought if circumstances are favourable; 2) a mechanism to expedite eligible payments to local associations going through mediation or interest arbitration; 3) a mechanism to assure that daily strike benefits are reviewed by the trustees at each annual meeting, with the intent of annual increases at least equivalent to the “Canada all-items CPI”; 4) to conduct a review of the mandate of the Membership Committee, given the fact that relatively few unionized associations are not already members of the DF.

At the annual meeting, elections were held to constitute the usual DF committees

  • Planning and Policy Committee: Albert Katz (Western) [Chair], Judy Bates (Wilfrid Laurier), Denise Nevo (Mount St. Vincent) and Robert Rosebrugh (Mount Allison).
  • Membership Committee: Angela Lonardo (Memorial) [Chair], Kevin Grundy (Dalhousie), William Osei (Algoma), and Bill Schipper (Memorial).
  • Investment Committee: Charles Draimin (Concordia) [Chair], Ann Bigelow (Western), Ken Ko (Queens), and Amin Mawani (York).

Rick Blute (Ottawa) and Dennis Felbel (Manitoba) will continue in their roles as Chairperson and Treasurer, respectively, until at least the 2007 annual meeting in Winnipeg.

I am very pleased that the Trustees selected me as the new President of the DF for a two-year term until the 2008 annual meeting. I have been a Trustee from the University of Prince Edward Island for four years, and I look forward to serving academic staff from across the country in this new role. I want to thank the past-President, Jean-Charles Cachon of Laurentian University, for the wise, thoughtful and effective leadership he has given the DF for the past four years. And, like Jean-Charles always did, I want to thank the staff of CAUT for their excellent work.

Future annual meetings of the Trustees will be in Winnipeg in 2007, and Fredericton in 2008.

In solidarity, and respectfully submitted by,

Larry Hale
President and Trustee (UPEI)
October 24, 2006