Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Thursday's Bulletin | Previous days | UWevents | UWinfo home page

Monday, April 8, 1996

More on the union application

The Faculty Association of UW filed a formal application April 3 to be certified as the union for an estimated 840 faculty members and librarians. Voting is expected some time next week. The union formally asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board to order voting from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 7 p.m. this Thursday and Friday, but suggested April 17 and 18 as alternate dates. FAUW president Ian Macdonald says that "because we're a large unit" it doesn't seem practical to have the voting within five working days after the certification request is filed, as "normally" required by the Labour Relations Act.

Everyone included in the proposed bargaining unit (faculty members and professional librarians) could vote. Polls would be in the Modern Languages building and the Davis Centre. If more than half of those voting say yes, the OLRB would then certify the association as the bargaining agent.

Filing the application last Wednesday -- the day of the association's annual general meeting -- means that at least 40 per cent of professors and librarians have signed union cards. The precise number of people who signed hasn't been made public. "We were well above the minimum number required," Macdonald said Thursday.

Organizers have been collecting signatures since a general meeting of the association in late January voted in favour of moving towards certification.

According to the official application, FAUW seeks to be the bargaining agent for

all persons employed as academic staff or professional librarians by the University of Waterloo based in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, including

(1) persons holding regular appointments (definite term, probationary or tenured), including fractional-load and reduced work load appointments;
(2) persons appointed as professional librarians, including librarians whose assigned workload is equivalent to or greater than 50% of a normal workload;
(3) persons holding full-time or part-time visiting or research appointments;
(4) persons holding full-time or part-time special, adjunct or staff language instructor appointments, whose assigned workload is equal to or greater than two term courses per year or the equivalent,
save and except for

(1) persons at the level of Dean and above, including the President, Vice-Presidents and the University Librarian;
(2) persons appointed as professional librarians whose assigned workload is less than 50% of a normal workload;
(3) visiting appointees holding an appointment for one year or less while on leave from another university or comparable institution;
(4) persons holding visiting, special, adjunct or staff language instructor appointments whose assigned workload is less than two term courses per year, or the equivalent.

The provost's office, deans' offices and the human resources department were scrambling at the end of last week to provide official lists of all those people. The official deadline for submitting those lists to the OLRB is tomorrow, provost Jim Kalbfleisch said.

The OLRB has to rule on the precise composition of the bargaining unit. Macdonald says the union is proposing a single unit to include all faculty and all librarians, but management could propose to have the definition changed, with (for example) full-time and part-time people in separate units. The OLRB would eventually rule on any such requests.

Amalgamation in Halifax

The Technical University of Nova Scotia is being amalgamated into its bigger neighbour, Dalhousie University, the government of Nova Scotia announced on Thursday. TUNS will become "a constituent part of Dalhousie" with "a new faculty of computer science, an amalgamated faculty of engineering and a faculty of architecture".

The government said that "The amalgamation of Dalhousie and TUNS will open doors to more students and faculty, and position the institution internationally, acting as a magnet for business and industry." The president of TUNS is Ted Rhodes, former chair of UW's chemical engineering department.

The Nova Scotia government also approved a "consortium" plan for Halifax's seven universities that will see them save millions of dollars a year through shared administrative services, including joint registration.

Local need for volunteers

Current requests from the Volunteer Action Centre:

Board members for English in the Working Environment -- "they are currently facing many changes and need Board Members who are dedicated to providing leadership. . . . Volunteers who have a background or interest in Adult Education, English as a Second Language or workplace literacy may be particularly interested." Listing 086-1545.
Statistics clerk for the Canadian Mental Health Association -- "a volunteer to read confidential reports and transfer statistics to reporting forms. The volunteer must be mature, reliable and able to respect confidentiality. The time commitment for this position is 3 hours a week and training would be provided." Listing 011-1544.
Volunteer visitor for the K-W Friendship Group -- "to provide companionship to a single, middle-aged woman who is a cancer survivor. Use of car is a necessity to go out for coffee or to do some personal shopping one evening a week." Listing 027-1546.

The VAC can be reached at 742-8610.

Notes on Easter Monday

Parking permits for students are now on sale for the spring term, says Elaine Koolstra, manager of parking services. The cost is $56 per term in the Village, Minota Hagey and Columbia Lake Townhouse lots. All other lots have space available at a cost of $74.40 per term, she says.

The libraries of UW, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph have chosen Endeavor Information Systems to provide their new computer system, including the electronic catalogue (Watcat) and circulation system. "This is a big, complex project," says chief librarian Murray Shepherd. "There may well be no publicly visible change to library systems before the spring/summer of 1997."

On the agenda for the arts faculty council (meeting tomorrow at 3:30) is a proposal to merge two of the smallest departments in arts into a single Department of Anthropology and Classical Studies.

Birthday greetings today to one of my colleagues in information and public affairs, Linda J. Howe.

Chris Redmond -- credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004

Comments to the editor | About the Bulletin | Thursday's Bulletin