Defence Fund President's Report to CAUT Council
Fall 2009
The period of relative calm continues for the CAUT Defence Fund. There were no strikes/lockouts involving member unions at either the end of the last academic year or the start of the current one. In fact, there have been no such events since the strike at Brandon University over a year ago.
Over the past few months, a number of member unions of the Fund were able to reach agreements on new contracts with their respective Employers, secure in the knowledge that the Fund would strongly back them if they had had to take job action. Among those unions are the ones at York University (YUFA), St. Mary's University (SMUFU), University of Regina (URFA), Carleton University (CUASA), Concordia University (CUFA), St. Thomas More College (STMCFU), Cape Breton University (CBUFA), Trent University (TUFA), the Part time Contract Academic Staff and Part time Librarians unit at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLUFA), and the Librarians and Archivists unit at the University of Western Ontario (UWOFA).
This quiet time gave members of the Planning and Policy Committee an opportunity to focus their energies on a comprehensive review and revision of the "Consolidated By-Law" and "Standing Rules and Regulations" documents. This task was given to the committee at the 2008 annual meeting of the Board of Trustees, as it had become apparent that a number of redundancies, inconsistencies and errors had crept into these important documents over the years. There were also a few places where current practices had to be changed (e.g. the manner in which interest on outstanding loans to member unions is calculated).
The new versions were presented to the 2009 annual general meeting of the Board of Trustees, held in October in Windsor, Ontario. They were accepted with only minor amendments.
The Board of Trustees also approved an increase in the rate of daily strike pay to $80 per insured member per day, and a dues-revenue policy that sets the rate of monthly per-capita dues at one-sixteenth of the rate daily strike pay. The practical effect of this is that if the rate of daily strike pay is increased, the dues will also increase by a proportional amount.
Two new member unions took their seats at the annual meeting table this year. Royal Roads University Faculty Association and St. Paul's University Faculty Association are the 40th and 41st member unions of the Fund, respectively. The membership in the Fund now stretches from coast-to-coast!
Rolland Gaudet of l'Association des professeurs du Collège universitaire de Saint Boniface (APCUSB) was elected to a two-year term as Chairperson of the Board of Trustees. We thank Ken Ko of Queen's University Faculty Association (QUFA) for his service as Chairperson. Charles Draimin of Concordia University Faculty Association (CUFA) was elected to a second two-year term as Treasurer.
The standing committees for 2008-2009 are as follows:
- Planning and Policy Committee:
Albert Katz (Western Ontario), Tom Booth (Manitoba), Denis Nevo (MSVU), and Robert Rosebrugh (Mount Allison) [Lawrence Hale (DF President) is ex officio] - Membership and Communication Committee:
Mark Langer (Carleton), Yalla Sangaré (Sainte-Anne) and Bill Schipper (Memorial). [Lawrence Hale (DF President), and Rolland Gaudet (DF Chairperson) are ex officio]. - Investment Committee:
Ann Bigelow (Western Ontario), Jean-Charles Cachon (Laurentian), Linda Lequin (Moncton), and Gopalan Srinivasar (UNB). [Charles Draimin (DF Treasurer) is ex officio] - Audit Committee:
Kevin Grundy (Dalhousie), Michelle Kramer (Wilfrid Laurier), and Richard Linley (Queen's)
As always, the DF is grateful for the excellent work by CAUT staff in support of DF activities. activities.
The next annual general meeting of the DF Board of Trustees will be in Montreal in October, 2009.
In solidarity, and respectfully submitted by,
Lawrence Hale
President and Trustee (UPEI)
November 3, 2009