Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Monday, April 15, 1996

Staff seeking an agreement

Staff members received a package late last week from the staff association compensation committee, providing some information about salary negotiations and asking for opinions.

The eight-page booklet includes an announcement of something new:

The UWSA is also developing a Framework Agreement to guide information gathering and discussions of such issues as staff relations, grievances, compensation, and equity among employee groups. We believe external and internal situations dictate that a more formal arrangement be developed between our staff and the University of Waterloo to ensure that our good working relationships with Senior Administration continue. The UWSA is confident that the University administration is fully aware of the contributions of its staff to the success of Waterloo. Acceptance of the proposed Framework Agreement will be a tangible sign of its commitment to fair and equitable treatment in all aspects of our employment.

Such a "Framework Agreement" sounds much like the existing Memorandum of Agreement between the university and the faculty association.

The staff association's salary material also contains some interesting figures. For example: UW ranks fourth among Ontario universities in average faculty salaries, but 14th in average staff salaries. Also:

Full- and part-time non-union staff numbers have fallen from 1727 in September, 1990, to 1530 in February, 1996, equaling a drop of 11.3%. Full- and part-time faculty numbers have moved from 842 in 1990 to 813 in 1996 for a 3.4% drop. Together these numbers represent a change in the staff/faculty ratio from 2.05:1 to 1.88:1. The effects of SERP are not yet fully known.

Senate will meet tonight

UW's senate holds its monthly meeting at 7:30 tonight in Needles Hall room 3001. On the agenda, among other matters: the 1995 report from the advisory council on academic human resources, with comments on employment equity, sexual harassment, parental leave, outreach to high school girls, quality of working life, safety, and other matters.

The plant operations department has sent out a notice that the air supply for Needles Hall will be shut off tomorrow morning from 8 to 11 a.m. Couldn't possibly have anything to do with leftover hot air, could it? No, something about annual maintenance, plant ops says.

Faculty prepare to vote

Voting is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday as the Ontario Labour Relations Board responds to a certification request from the UW faculty association. Robin Banks, associate provost (academic affairs), is representing management in the arrangements for the union vote, and sent out a memo Friday to "All Faculty, Language Instructors and Librarians" to advise them of the vote. (Official OLRB notices have also been posted and can be read on UWinfo under "Documents".)

Said Banks, in part:

Who can vote? -- Faculty members, professional librarians and language instructors as described in the Faculty Association proposed bargaining unit. If your name is not on the posted lists but you fall into one of these categories you should bring this to the attention of the OLRB officer at the polling station.
No mail-in ballots -- A telephone survey of departments was conducted on April 9th to determine how many of those eligible to vote will be away from campus April 17 and 18 on Sabbaticals and other university business. The results indicated a substantial number will be off-campus. As a result, the University asked the OLRB to allow such individuals to vote by mail. Unfortunately the Faculty Association did not support this request and the OLRB has indicated that in its view a mail ballot is not appropriate. To vote you must attend an on-campus poll on April 17 or 18.
Re: importance of voting -- The result will be determined by a simple majority (50% plus 1) of those who actually vote. This is an important decision. Please vote.

It's Boston Marathon day

Keyed-up runners are heading for the starting line in Hopkinton, as the 100th Boston Marathon begins at 12 noon. I've been told of three UW people who are definitely in the race, and there are rumours of others (I'd be glad to hear specifics). Stretching and jogging this morning, preparing for the starting gun:

Patricia Campbell-Pearson of the Humanities copy centre, who qualified for Boston by finishing last spring's Toronto marathon within the time limit.
Bonnie Neglia of civil engineering, a veteran Waterloo runner.
Terry McMahon, chair of the chemistry department.

And I received a note late last week: "How about making a list/count of all the UW people who have in the past run the Boston Marathon? Seem to be lots of runners at UW. I'll start your list with Mark Pritzker, chemical engineering, who ran it when he was a grad student."

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

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