QUFA’s Tentative Roll-Over Agreement: Concerns and Questions

The Queen’s University Faculty Association has reached a tentative roll-over agreement with the university administration. If ratified, the roll-over would extend the current collective agreement for one year, until June 30, 2026. 

The administration wants this roll-over, claiming it sought the delay due to fatigue from a string of difficult negotiations with other campus unions this winter. QUFA leadership has tentatively agreed, suggesting at the special general meeting on April 13 that this gesture might buy goodwill, which they hope will be reciprocated when full bargaining occurs. 

Roll-over negotiations provided QUFA with the opportunity to make some gains for its members, but does the tentative agreement deliver on that promise? 

Here we outline five concerns and questions:

1. Administrative Goodwill: It is unclear whether the administration is capable of recognizing and rewarding “goodwill” in any meaningful way. It’s worth remembering that it was the administration that delayed bargaining when QUFA’s sibling unions were ready to get to the table. More recently, the administration’s cavalier attitude and disregard for undergraduate education led to a six-week strike—the first academic strike in Queen’s history—significantly disrupting the education of thousands of students. None of this inspires confidence that goodwill from QUFA will be acknowledged, let alone rewarded.

2. Fairness for Adjuncts:  QUFA’s first bargaining priority in this round is fairness for adjuncts, yet the proposed roll-over agreement fails to address minimum teaching stipends, extended health benefits, access to the pension plan, pathways to permanence or tenure, or opportunities to participate in paid service.

• Why are substantive gains for term adjuncts missing from the tentative agreement?

3. Concerns about Restructuring: With plans in motion to further downsize and restructure the Faculty of Arts and Science, the roll-over negotiations provided an opportunity to include language about suspending enrollments–the administration’s preferred route for closing programs. This point was raised at the special general meeting, yet the roll-over agreement is silent on this matter. What it does say is the following:

(1) “[The administration] will not carry out an academic restructuring, including the merging of academic Units, the closure of academic Units, and/or the creation of new academic Units or Faculties or new educational centres/entities offering for credit.” 

(2) “The University shall engage in timely and meaningful consultation with the Association, and its Members, regarding changes that the University is seriously contemplating that would have a direct financial impact on Members or otherwise substantially impact Members’ terms and conditions of employment.”

The same language about “timely and meaningful consultation” is repeated in the next clause regarding novel voluntary retirement or exit programs. 

• What does “meaningful and timely consultation” mean? How will it work? Are there guarantees about the content, duration and form of these consultations? What redress would QUFA have if meaningful and timely consultation does not occur? It is worth recalling that most “consultation” sessions in the recent past have not acknowledged, much less incorporated, criticisms or suggestions for change.
• Do these clauses empower QUFA to challenge ongoing restructuring plans such as the Bicentennial Vision or the current push within FAS to merge departments and programs? Will these processes be paused during the year that the roll-over is in force?
• While the tentative agreement states that the administration will not “carry out” academic restructuring, what prevents the administration from using this time to organize restructuring to start as soon as the roll-over expires? The absence of guarantees that enrollments to programs will not be suspended is cause for concern since a program with suspended enrollment may be set up for closure as soon as the roll-over period expires. 
• With the major loss of undergraduate seats in FAS, as well as reductions in faculty and staff, some programs are being made vulnerable to closure, making this a critical time for faculty to be empowered to negotiate with the administration.

4. Endpoint Protection: Faculty members across the university (LINKS) have expressed serious concerns about Endpoint Protection. The roll-over agreement provides 1) an extension for enrollment, and 2) a $330 one-time payment for cell phone and service.

• Will there be further consultation on Endpoint, especially in regards to privacy, research security and academic freedom? 
• Is this an extension or a hold? 
• What is the prorated amount of $330 for a 0.5 credit course taught by a term adjunct?

5. 2.25% Across-the-Board Increase: In the same general meeting when the request for a rollover was raised, the QUFA chief negotiator mentioned that a higher ATB could be on the table if nothing else was achieved. Although tenure-track and tenured faculty argued for a smaller ATB rate in exchange for better protection of programs and improved working conditions, this suggestion was loudly rejected by adjuncts, particularly term adjuncts whose stipends keep shrinking due to inflation.

• Why are term adjunct stipends not addressed in the tentative agreement?

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A ratification meeting will be held on May 5 from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. Members can RSVP to Elizabeth Polnicky (ep43@queensu.ca) to receive the Zoom link.