Friday, July 30, 1993 TWO GROUPS AGREE: Two more employee groups have signed Social Contract agreements with UW. One is the Graduate Student Association, which represents teaching and research assistants. The agreement signed by negotiators yesterday is subject to ratification by the GSA board of directors on August 9. None of the TA's and RA's earn as much as $30,000 a year, so all are exempt from the direct effects of the Social Contract such as taking unpaid days off over the next three years. The other group that signed yesterday is Canadian Union of Public Employees local 793, representing hourly-paid staff in plant operations and food services. The CUPE agreement is subject to membership ratification at a meeting on August 4. Contents of the agreement haven't been made public. CUPE members got a 1 per cent pay increase on May 1, as provided in their 1992-94 contract with the university; the money for that increase is coming from the elimination of six positions in the plant operations department, officials have said. CUPE had earlier declined to negotiate with UW management, in keeping with an Ontario-wide CUPE policy of resisting the Social Contract. A FEW MORE DAYS: The government has designated UW as a "sub-sector" under the Social Contract. That word came yesterday afternoon. It means that UW is guaranteed its 20 per cent "discount" on the required payroll cuts, as expected. It also -- unexpectedly -- means that UW has until August 10, not the previous deadline of this weekend, to reach agreement with other employee groups. The only remaining group, assuming that the GSA and CUPE ratify their agreements, is the faculty association. Talks in that area aren't actively going on at present, although management and the faculty association negotiators did meet yesterday morning. UW also has to submit a Social Contract "plan" for employees who aren't covered by any bargaining agent -- a host of part-time and casual staff, most of them earning less than the $30,000 cutoff. Provost Jim Kalbfleisch said that they, like the staff association members whose Social Contract agreement was signed last week, face a three-year pay freeze (and those earning over $30,000 presumably also will get three unpaid days off). Three of the four church colleges have submitted their own Social Contract plans, and St. Paul's United College is expected to follow shortly. STUDENT ANCILLARY FEE: UW treasurer Dorothy Battae says a committee of university officials and leaders from the Federation of Students and the Graduate Student Association has met a few times to discuss the fees students pay for "ancillary" services such as health, athletics, housing, counselling and career placement. Discussions are in the early stages, she said, but things are moving in the direction of a unified fee to replace a cluster of separate student fees that now exist, and to cover some UW services now paid for from the central budget. A possible model is the "ancillary fee" introduced this year at the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario. The faculty association's salary proposal in the Social Contract talks includes the assumption that such a fee will be introduced, with the funds available to beef up the university budget by $3.2 million a year starting in 1994. If the fee does come to pass, it would certainly help bridge the gap between total revenue and expenditure that UW will have when the Social Contract program of unpaid days off and other temporary savings ends in 1996. GENDER CONFERENCE: The Gender and Science and Technology Association is holding its biennial conference at UW's Village 2, starting Saturday and running through next Thursday. COME TO AN END: Today is the last day of classes for the spring term; exams start Tuesday. Monday, August 3, is Civic Holiday. UW offices and most services will be closed. No service will be offered in the libraries, but the libraries themselves will be open (Dana Porter 11:30 to 6:30, Davis Centre 11:30 to 7:00); the University Map and Design Library will be closed. Chris Redmond Information and Public Affairs credmond@watserv1 ext. 3004