BUFA-Administration negotiations: update on ongoing resolutions
By Mehak ‘May’ Oberoi
“The things we’re working on, the things we’re fighting for are things that allow us to deliver good classes and good services to students, and to do it in a way where we’re able to do it well. Where we’re not worried about having enough time to prepare, or in class thinking ‘oh my god, how am I going to balance my budget this month’ while we’re in class. Faculty who are well-treated, who can do their jobs well and who are respected in their jobs will benefit the students, directly and indirectly.”
If you’re a BU student, there’s a high chance that in the past month, you’ve heard rumors about an upcoming strike. Campus has been rife with rumors about the ongoing negotiations, many of which were proved to be, as I learned in an interview with BUFA vice-president Dr. Jon-Tomas Godin, to be false. As a representative of BUFA, Dr. Godin spoke with The Quill on February 2 about the current negotiations, including BUFA’s demands and whether a strike is imminent.
BUFA, or the Brandon University Faculty Association, is an organization that represents the needs of all Brandon University Faculty, which includes professors as well as other members, such as those part of departments like the library and student services. For current negotiations, a letter of intent to start bargaining was sent on February 7, 2023, marking a full year since negotiations began this month. Current negotiations are being made by BUFA on, as per representative Dr. Godin, “improving the language around EDID and around indigenisation, in our collective agreement, improving the language we have on workload and what’s on everybody’s mind when people are negotiating, which of course is compensation.” Unlike the last two rounds of bargaining (2015, 2019), this round stands out. “BUFA basically started those rounds of bargaining by saying ‘we don’t want to go on strike’. The big difference in the conversation this time around has been
that we didn’t start the conversation by saying that. We knew this was going to be a difficult round of bargaining, and we didn’t want to eliminate options from the get-go,” Dr. Godin states.
There have been a lot of rumors about an upcoming strike. What can you tell us about that?
Dr. Godin: “We have not called a strike vote. There is no strike. We are in negotiations. We know there are some concerns, and people have been talking about a potential strike, and we haven’t ruled out the possibility of a strike either. We’re in that weird situation where we might, we might not. And there are a few issues involved.”
What are the demands being made by BUFA?
On improving the language around EDID and indigenisation, Dr. Godin reported, “we have proposed two brand new articles to put into our collective agreement- one on EDID, one on indigenization, and the employer’s response to those articles, the union feels they set us back. In particular on the indigenisation article, we proposed some forward thinking language that would protect indigenous faculty members. Protect their time, protect them, give them some agency, give them some mentorship, make sure they have the resources they need and also protect the time of faculty members whose job is dedicated to serving indigenous students and make sure it can’t be taken away.” However, as he continued on to say, “the university came back and simply didn’t accept any of that language.”
Furthermore, faculty’s demands are two-pronged when it comes to compensation. Firstly would be to match salary increases to rising inflation. Secondly would be to reevaluate the pension cap set by the university, which for more recent professors leaves an unsustainable future for their retirement plans.
In relation to progress achieved by BUFA, they report to be happy on the continuing change to a fairer workload for professors. “One of the big issues
in workload is that we want to move faculty to a standard 15 credit hours, which we are well on our way to doing,” Dr. Godin reports. In the future, BUFA also hopes to improve per-course-salary for sessional faculty instructors. The purpose of this would be to better attract the instructors that are necessary for the continued running of the university.
What can students expect from a possible future strike?
On this, Dr. Godin reiterates, “a strike is a last resort. We will use every means we can to get a good collective agreement because the reality is, strikes have impacts on the people who are on strike too.” He continues on to elaborate, “If a strike were to occur, we would do everything we could that’s within our power to mitigate impacts on students, to resolve the strike as quickly as we can, and if at all possible to try to not have one in the first place.” As with the last strike, students can likely expect for both parties to agree to an essential services agreement, which makes sure students in need are not suddenly deprived of necessary resources such as counseling. BUFA faculty hope to minimize disruption to the term schedule as much as possible. It is important to note, as stated by Dr. Godin, that should a strike occur, it will likely begin by early March.
Historically, universities have run on a collegial governance system. Over the last several decades, there has been a significant shift to administration holding majority power over decisions regarding students and faculty, with faculty representation continuing to be lost. Faculty, however, as I discussed with Dr. Godin are the foundation of what a university is, and the people that best understand student needs. They are our direct contact to the student life at any university, and highly qualified to specialized caliber that is now demanding more respect for its knowledge here at Brandon University. After the PSSA reduced BUFA’s ability to bargain for compensation, forcing their hands to 4 year long deals in the last collective agreement, the current negotiation is BUFA’s effort in catching up to the lost representation and compensation, especially as the university rebuilds differently post-pandemic.
Note: Edited for clarification