Unsurprisingly, our focus this week is on the PSAC strike.
Bargaining 101: Reading the university’s labour news update from March 19th, one gets the impression that the university is politely and eagerly waiting for PSAC to return to the table with a revised offer. What’s missing from the update is the fact that the employer has yet to actually sit down and discuss the proposals that the union made prior to the strike. There is nothing preventing the University from making the next overture to bring the union back to the table. In suggesting that it is PSAC’s turn to offer a new proposal, the university is trying to a) delay the resolution of the strike in an effort to weaken the union, and b) build a narrative that discredits PSAC and positions the union as the rightful target of the frustration that people across campus are feeling about the strike.
Negotiate: “to have formal discussions with someone in order to reach an agreement with them.”
“A recurring theme throughout the bargaining process,” PSAC told members yesterday, “was Queen’s refusal to respond to your Team’s proposals. This refusal to respond persists in Queen’s refusal to return to the bargaining table and continue negotiations.”
1. PSAC explains their bargaining positions – and the university’s failure to bargain in good faith – in a short video on Instagram. For those who don’t use Instagram, you can find the video here.
“Our key issue with the employer is that they continue to say “no” to some of the proposals when what we really want is to have a conversation to find solutions. The issue of the funding to labour ratio is closely related to our wages and so is compensation for TFs to develop courses. We understand that negotiations require movement on both sides, however, a “no” response precludes any possibility of finding a way forward.”
2. At the time of writing, 160 Queen’s faculty members have signed an open letter calling on the university to resume negotiations with PSAC. The letter is still accepting signatures.
3. An ad hoc group of concerned faculty has organized a march and teach-in for tomorrow, Friday, 21 March, to show solidarity with PSAC 901. The organizers are demanding that the university return to the table and commit to a fair resolution to prevent the strike continuing into a third week. The march will begin at 11:30 am at the Yellow House Student Centre for Equity and Inclusion (140 Stuart Street at the corner of University Avenue) and continue to Richardson Hall. An outdoor teach-in will follow. Faculty members are encouraged to wear robes if they have them.
4. One of the issues that makes TA compensation different from (and harder to understand than) payment for a more conventional part time job is the fact that a TA’s wages are part of their “funding package,” that is, the total sum of money that they are promised and with which they are expected to support themselves when they come to Queen’s to study and do their research. For instance, at Queen’s, PhD students are guaranteed a minimum funding package of $23,000. That package is made up of money from several different sources. Some of it is payment for TA work, some of it may come in the form of a grant called the Queen’s Graduate Award. Some may come from working as a research assistant for a faculty member. Some students may also have awards and scholarships from Queen’s or from agencies outside the university. Ideally, if the TAs were to receive a wage increase, the overall value of their funding packages would go up. But that is not necessarily how it works at this institution; higher wages might just lead to a student receiving less money in the form of a grant, with the total value of their funding package not changing at all. It is for this reason that PSAC is asking for limits on the portion of the funding package that comes from TA or RA work.
This limiting of the waged portion of the funding package is not a radical proposal; it is something that TAs at the University of Toronto (CUPE 3902, Unit 1) secured in a new collective agreement last year. Here is how CUPE 3902 described this new provision to their members: “A reduction of the amount of Unit 1 work [TA work] that can be counted towards base funding. Unit 1 work also cannot make up more than 50% of your base funding. This requires UofT to find other funds for many of our members and pay them for their Unit 1 work on top of their funding package.”
5. Yesterday, Principal Deane sent an email to the entire Queen’s community calling for civility and respect during the labour “disruption.” While we share his belief that all persons should be treated with respect and civility, it is nevertheless the case that strikes are disruptive. They involve noise and, yes, sometimes angry words or people standing in front of doors or, indeed, people harassing picketers. It is inevitable that campus life will be disrupted while 2000 university employees – who, we must remember, are also students at this institution and thus people whom we care about – exercise their right to withhold their labour. And they will withhold their labour until they are able to negotiate a contract that is – let’s use the word – “respectful” of them and the work they do.
Civility and respect are not just matters of language or tone or volume, they are also conveyed through actions. We might say, for instance, that a negotiating team that does not engage in discussion with its counterparts on the other side is not behaving with civility or respect. A university that seems prepared to sacrifice the educational experience and outcomes of more than 25,000 students, while it seeds a divisive and punitive labour environment, is hardly acting with civility and respect. If the university were indeed interested in promoting such qualities at Queen’s they would be working around the clock to facilitate an end to this “disruption.”
6. Casting yet more doubt on claims that the university is in dire financial straits, administrators have hired an expensive external security firm, Cancom, to oversee the picket line, despite the fact that Queen’s has its own Campus Security and Emergency Services personnel. Cancom has “over 150 years of combined military and law enforcement experience, offering expert security solutions.” What exactly is the problem that needs solving here? Grad students with megaphones and signs? For those who are perhaps not familiar with the long history of protest and dissent on university campuses (even this one!), the introduction of outside security people – hired to monitor legally protected forms of protest – is new and not normal.
Please circulate this newsletter to your grad students and colleagues.
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Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who helped get this issue out.
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