Fall 2001 – Report to CAUT Council

As expected, business at the Defence Fund was rather quiet during the summer months but this changed rapidly as soon as classes resumed for the Fall term.

In early October, the University of Manitoba Faculty Association requested a meeting of the Board of Trustees by conference call, following a majority vote in favour of a strike at UMFA. The strike date was set for Monday, October 22. At the meeting, which was held on Monday, October 15, Trustees approved payment of strike benefits to UMFA, as well as a loan to cover insured benefits premiums and a line of credit in the amount of $1 million. Trustees also approved a schedule of strike support visits. A giant cheque in the amount of $1 million payable to UMFA was later handed over to Paul Fortier, in Sudbury.

The strike indeed started on October 22 and a national solidarity visit was scheduled for Friday, October 26, with flying pickets arriving in Winnipeg at their convenience on Thursday, October 25. Several Trustees from across Canada volunteered to take part in the visit. The first to arrive was Ernie Redekop (Western Ontario). Ernie arrived in Winnipeg shortly before noon on Thursday, quickly joined the picket line and spent about four hours with our UMFA colleagues on the picket line that day. It turned out that he was in fact the only flying picket to actually get to picket. The other Trustees arrived later that Thursday, some of them very late at night (Allen Britten, UCCB; Jean-Charles Cachon, Laurentian; Robert Dilley, Lakehead; Mark Langer, Carleton; Michael Piva, Ottawa; with Karen Zoppa and her colleagues standing by in Winnipeg). My thanks go to Bob Rosebrugh who took over organizing the event as I was called to another pressing business. By Friday morning, the Employer at the University of Manitoba, perhaps swayed by the "spectre of the flying pickets appearance" (Langer), most definitely influenced by the strike action of the 1070 UMFA members, reconsidered its position and agreed to binding arbitration. UMFA immediately ended the strike after four days on the picket line and members returned to work in the morning of Friday, October 26.

We are all very happy about this quick resolution and should not feel sorry that time constraints did not make it possible to alert flying pickets before they left their homes. The Defence Fund always responds to its member associations when they ask for help, and member associations should know that the Defence Fund will always be there for them when needed.

In late summer, an application to join the Defence Fund was received from the University of Regina Faculty Association. In September, I was invited by the University of Prince Edward Island Faculty Association to come and speak to the membership about the advantages of joining the Defence Fund. I travelled to Charlottetown on Friday, October 12. After my talk, the membership was invited to vote and unanimously agreed to join the Defence Fund. Their formal application was received a few days later.

The Annual General Meeting of the Board of Trustees was held in Sudbury on October 20. The first two items of business were the applications of URFA (about 600 members) and UPEIFA (about 300 members) to join the Defence Fund. These applications were unanimously approved and Trustees were very pleased to welcome the two new associations. There are now 31 member associations from St. John's (Newfoundland) to Regina (Saskatchewan). All but one faculty associations in all four Atlantic Provinces are now unionized and members of the Fund. Another interesting observation is that 50% of the Trustees present in Sudbury were attending a Defence Fund Board of Trustees meeting for the first time.

Net assets of the Defence Fund at year's end (May 31, 2001) totalled a little over $12 million.

An amendment to By-Law No. 1 was approved by Trustees in Sudbury: a 60-day written notice has now to be given for any proposed change in the initiation fees, dues, and strike benefits.

Several matters regarding policy and planning were on the table, including a proposal for a policy regarding dues and benefits for part-time faculty. The trend is rapidly growing among faculty associations across Canada to include their part-time faculty in their unions, whether in the same bargaining unit or as a separate bargaining unit, and a uniform policy for counting part-time members is long overdue. However, all the policy and planning matters which were on the table in Sudbury were referred to the 2001-2002 Planning and Policy Committee following a motion carried by a majority vote, thus this pressing issue has not been resolved yet.

The Trustees elected Bob Rosebrugh (Mount Allison) as Treasurer of the Fund; Serge Jolicoeur (Moncton) as Chair of the Membership Committee, with Jean-Charles Cachon (Laurentian), Jack Vanderlinde (New Brunswick) and Maura Matesic (York) as members of the Membership Committee; Michael Wharton (York) as Chair of the Planning and Policy Committee, with Angela Lonardo (Memorial), Mark Langer (Carleton), Rick Blute (Ottawa) and Colman O'Hare (UPEI) as members of the Planning and Policy Committee; and David Tindal (Dalhousie) as Chair of the Investment Committee, with Sharon Taylor-Henley (Manitoba) and Gary MacCormick (Bishop's) as members of the Investment Committee. I was re-elected for a third and last term as Chair of the Fund.

Bill Schrank (Memorial), who for many years held positions by turns as Chair of the DF, Treasurer, Chair of the P&P Committee, and Trustee; Guy Chauvin (Saint-Mary's) who had also been involved with the Defence Fund for very many years; and Ernie Redekop (Western Ontario), a Trustee for several years, will retire this year. All three were thanked at the congenial Saturday night dinner organized by the Laurentian University Faculty Association for their many years of service in the Defence Fund. LUFA was thanked for their exceptional hospitality, in particular Jean-Charles Cachon (current Trustee) and Wendy Jerome (former Trustee).

A request for strike benefits was made at the Sudbury meeting by the Syndicat des professeurs de l'Université Laval. At the time of the request, SPUL's 600 members had already started a rotating strike, following a 93% vote in early October in favour of a motion giving mandate to the SPUL to hold a rotating strike for up to ten days. While SPUL is no longer a member of the Defence Fund, it still holds a residual eligibility in the Fund and strike benefits were approved unanimously by the Trustees, to the maximum amount available under the residual eligibility calculation at the date of the first payment. As I write this report, both parties have still been unable to reach an agreement, however they are back at the negotiating table. Several days of rotating strike have already taken place and more are scheduled for the near future if an agreement is not reached. The SPUL has been without a contract since November 30, 1999.

The Board of Trustees will meet in St. John's in October 2002 and in Regina in October 2003.

As always, I am very grateful for the assistance and support I receive from the CAUT staff, as well as for their continuing efficient work in the administration of the Defence Fund.

Respectfully submitted,

Denise Nevo
Chair, CAUT Defence Fund
http://defencefund.caut.ca
November 2001