Preparing for Bargaining at St. Lawrence College

On November 13th I drove up to Cornwall to visit with the stewards and officers of OPSEU Local 417, representing faculty at St. Lawrence College.

St. Lawrence was founded in 1967, and has campuses in Kingston, Cornwall, and Brockville.  It has approximately 6,700 full time and 20,000 part time students, and boasts a nationally reknowned music theatre program.  Local 417 currently represents 195 full time faculty and approximately 250 partial load.  The number of part-time faculty is also growing steadily.

Graeme Aubert

Local 417 president Graeme Aubert has 40 years of experience as a professor.  In our discussion he talked about the college system at its founding, and of how sufficient funding allowed for faculty professional development, and a more collegial work environment.  He also noted that faculty's 1984 victory in winning the Standard Workload Form (SWF) brought workload equity to the college.  Before the SWF it was easy for management to control faculty by "playing favourites" and punishing independently minded professors with overwhelming workloads.

The faculty at St. Lawrence are beginning to experience many of the same issues that are plaguing other colleges.  Like Mohawk and Cambrian, St. Lawrence has a curriculum licensing agreement with a private college operating well within their vicinity.  Alpha International Academy in Scarborough teaches business, general arts and english programs to international students.  The curriculum was developed by St. Lawrence professors and OPSEU members, but has now been outsourced to non-members.  With no intellectual property protection, faculty's knowledge and expertise can be used to put them out of work.

At our meeting a steward from counseling talked about how the climate of cost-cutting and reduction in full time faculty is leading to increased job stress and decreased service.  One conselor saw 119 people in September and October alone, and 63% of the clients had serious mental health issues.  With growing student enrollment and a higher stress learning environment, the work of college counselors is more important than ever.  In spite of this, full time counseling positions are in decline, and those left to handle the heavy case-loads are being worn down.  At the Kingston campus alone, this past fall 3 of the 5 counselors were on long term disability for stress-related issues.





Local 417 talked about challenges in mobilizing their membership, and especially the difficulty of communicating with their large roster of partial load faculty.  In addition, the fact that St. Lawrence's campuses reflect three very different communities with distinct demographics makes it difficult to present a unified message. 

These are challenges faced by several locals, and the hard-working team at Local 417 stress the need for improved communication during bargaining.  Putting clear, factual, and relevant information in the hands of our members will enable them to get behind bargaining demands, and will lead to much-needed success at the negotiating table.

Visiting Northern College

Immediately after my meeting at Fleming College I drove through an early snowstorm to North Bay.  Having never made the trip, the blizardy night-time drive was a bit hair-raising, but I managed to make it in reasonable time (with only one wrong turn).  The following day I continued up to the Kirkland Lake campus of Northern College, a drive filled with breathtaking scenery and thankfully little snow.

Kirkland Lake is where my father grew up, so visiting town held special meaning for me.  On directions from my Dad I was able to track down the exact street and home where he was born - an old wooden house beside a bush trail.  In the fading light I managed to snap a few quick pictures, then it was off to meet with president Olayide (Lad) Shaba and the stewards of OPSEU Local 653.

The old MacKay home on Carter Avenue, Kirkland Lake

Northern College has its central campus in Timmins, a further hour and a half drive north-west of Kirkland Lake.  Other campuses are located in Moosonee and Haileybury.  Northern services a catchment area of over 150,000 square kilometres, and has 2,000 full time and 15,000 part time students.

Over a Local executive committee meeting, I heard about the challenges being faced by faculty at Northern, shared in many ways by their colleagues in Sudbury, Sault St. Marie, North Bay, and Thunder Bay.  Like the other college faculty working in the North, the stewards of Local 653 lamented a government that appears to be turning its back on northern colleges, and failing to appreciate the important role they play in social and economic development. 

Its not hard to see how Northern College faculty can feel underfunded.  From an early 1990s high of 135 full time faculty, today just 78 remain.  The attrition is slow and steady.  As full time faculty retire, they are simply not being replaced.  Instead, part-timers are hired, and now several programs don't even have one full time faculty member associated with them.

Local 653 on the picket line in 2006

Professors, counselors and librarians at Northern are also struggling with the increasing demands that understaffing brings.  Faculty are asked to sit on college committees, yet this work is unpaid, and unaccounted for on their SWF (the contract that spells out the hours and terms of faculty work each semester).  If they don't attend meetings, faculty risk losing even more input into academic decisions.  However, the extra work of participating can be exploitative when considering the already maxed-out full time workloads.

Over dinner after the meeting, I was given an invaluable insight into the unique experience of teaching in the North, and of how it has changed over the years.  Stephen Borao, a long-time professor and union member who retired this past summer, described his teaching career and the major impact collective bargaining had on it.

In 1980 Stephen was hired as a "teaching master" at the Moosonee campus, when it wasn't yet affiliated with Northern College.  Semesters began in October, to leave room for moose hunting season, and Stephen flew in by bush plane to teach an introductory business program.  Stephen taught between 20 and 24 hours a week with no direction, no support, and no feedback.  He created the entire curriculum from scratch and delivered it until the site was shut down in 1983.  Because he was a union member, he was transferred to the Kirkland Lake campus, where he spent the next 30 years teaching, went back to school on an academic leave, and became a tireless officer in Local 653.

When considering his experiences and the challenges now facing faculty at Northern, Stephen reflected on the successful struggles of the past, saying: "People think that the decent wages, benefits, and hours worked today are out of the kindness of the college.  They don't realize that these things were won by the union."

Stephen's point is well worth remembering for today's college faculty.  Collective bargaining works, and if professors, counselors and librarians stand in solidarity, we can overcome the challenges we now face, and return the college system to its original mandate - providing excellent education, social support and economic development to Ontario's diverse communities.

Negotiating Academic Input at Fleming College

In November of last year I drove up to the Peterborough campus of Fleming College.  Fleming also has campuses in Cobourg, Haliburton, and Lindsay.  Approximately 6,000 full time and 10,000 part time students study at Fleming in a wide range of arts, environment, health, trades and business programs.

Gary Bonczak

The faculty at Fleming are represented by long-time president and past bargaining team member Gary Bonczak and the officers of OPSEU Local 352.  There are currently 200 full time faculty, and approximately 300 non full time.  Before the scourge of Mike Harris, Fleming had 235 full time faculty.  Since this time, student enrollment has steadily increased, and like other colleges, today's professors, counselors and librarians are being asked to do more with less.

At Fleming I was able to meet with both the officers and the general membership.  Both discussions highlighted the challenges being faced by faculty, and also offered an interesting glimpse into how academic freedom could work in Ontario colleges.

For years Fleming was unique in that professors ran the academic areas.  Faculty teams did all of the academic planning and course development.  They managed departmental budgets, and controlled the administration of programs.  This arrangement lasted for over 10 years, and was supported by a faculty-centered VPA.  While Gary mentioned that this arrangement added to the workload of academic team leaders, it also gave faculty unprecedented control over academic decision-making.  This model played a large role in building Fleming's reputation as an institution committed to excellence.

Due to layoffs in the 1990s and a lack of full time hiring, academic leaders who retired weren't replaced, and Fleming's faculty-driven model began to show strain.  When new administration arrived who didn't share the same collegial vision, a system of Deans and departmental Chairs was imposed.  Since this time, relationships have shifted, the faculty voice in academic management has waned, and grievances have become more common.

Despite this set-back to the culture of academic freedom at Fleming, faculty have been able to make some gains, as when they negotiated the return of non-contact development time in May and June.  This is a huge gain for faculty, and enables professors to keep up with much needed course and professional development.  Clearly the administration at Fleming realized that enabling faculty to stay up to date in their professions is directly linked to the quality of education.  Sadly, many other colleges have taken this once standard development time away from faculty, replacing it with an additional two months of teaching.

Fleming's unique history shows both that academic freedom is completely possible in Ontario Colleges, and also that its lack leads to an erosion of collegial relations.  With academic freedom negotiated in the new Academic Employees Collective Agreement, professors system-wide can begin to build the kind of faculty-driven, education-focused culture that Fleming once enjoyed.  The benefits this would provide to professors, and to students, are profound. 

Ensuring Access at Confederation College

Happy New Year, and all the best for 2014!

It's great to be back from the holidays and once more talking about my passion - college education in Ontario.  In late December the southeast part of the province endured some pretty extreme weather, and hopefully the worst is behind us (or did I just jinx us all there...?).  Big respect to all of the linesmen (and women) who braved the cold to bring power back to thousands affected by the ice storm.

In the next few weeks I'll be completing posts about my visits to the various community colleges.  At the same time I'll be drafting a Report on College Education in Ontario, so January will be a busy month.

*******************************************************

After a warm and informative visit with Carolyn Gaunt and Local 655 at Cambrian, early November saw me heading north-west to visit with faculty at Confederation College.

The Shuniah Campus of Confederation College

Confederation was founded in 1967, and its main campus is located in Thunder Bay.  The college services approximately 215,000 square kilometres of northern Ontario through 8 area campuses.  Like Cambrian and Boreal, dealing with long distances and the unique needs of far northern communities present a constant challenge.  Despite this, the faculty at Confederation do an exceptional job at providing access to high quality education for 3,200 full time and over 17,000 part time students.

Faculty at Confederation are represented by president John Kornichuk and the officers of OPSEU Local 732.  I was able to meet with the Local executive, then with the general membership, and was impressed by the way Confederation's many far-flung campuses were integrated into the meeting via Skype. 

In the North, on-line learning is essential in accessing remote communities, and represents an appropriate use of this technology.  Despite this, it was interesting to hear a steward from BSCN nursing describe the hunger online students have for direct personal contact with faculty.  Because of this, faculty try to schedule face-to-face intensives at the area campuses, but are limited in this by budget constraints.

The intrepid team of Local 732

The impact of restricted funding is apparent in many of Confederation's operations, and particularly in staffing.  The current complement of 160 full time faculty is way down from a 1992 high of 242.  At the same time, part-time and sessional now outnumber full time by over two to one.

Management cost-cutting is impacting the trades.  Where apprenticeship programs once had one professor and one technician teaching a lab of 10 students, the college is now moving toward a single instructor teaching a class of 15 students.  Nursing is also feeling the pressure of increasing enrollments and decreasing staffing.  Classes once capped at 50 students now range from 65 to 70.

Along with a decrease in staffing and increase in class sizes, the funding crunch at Confed is also leading to the marginalization of faculty in academic decisions.  Whereas once a collegial attitude prevailed, with monthly meetings between the VPA and faculty, now many management decisions are made without consultation.  An example of this shift is the expansion of online delivery into locally-based programs, and to student groups that clearly struggle with a lack of face-to-face instruction.  Faculty complain, but are not heard.

The struggles of faculty at Confederation to maintain educational standards speak to the broader problem that also faces Cambrian, Boreal, Sault, and the next stop on my tour, Northern College.  The colleges in the North provide a critical service to their communities.  The original mandate of the colleges was to reflect the diverse needs of different regions, yet the move to a more corporate, competitive and resource-scarce model is making this increasingly difficult.  The Colleges' recent announcement of sweeping mandate changes and "differentiation" just furthers suspicions that the original vision of access and community responsiveness is fast receding.

Despite these formidable challenges, I left Confederation knowing that the faculty there remain committed to ensuring access to high quality education in the North.  This fact, more than anything, gives me hope...