Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Tuesday, September 24, 1996

Faculty negotiate on salaries

Talks are under way again between UW professors and their employer -- "the university", the board of governors, "the administration" -- over salary levels for 1996-97. Faculty salary levels have been frozen since 1992 thanks to the Ontario government's Social Contract, and almost as soon as the Social Contract ended last spring, negotiations were put on hold while the faculty association voted on possible unionization. With union certification turned down, talks can now resume.

UW's provost said in June that the administration is looking at a general cut in professors' salaries as a way of funding the "progress through the ranks" increases that benefit younger professors. The faculty association hasn't stated its proposal, but association president Ian Macdonald did provide this memo last Friday:

Salary negotiations for the 1996-97 salary year have now resumed. Both parties will be tabling initial positions next week.
During the confidential session at the FAUW Special General Meeting held yesterday, the members, following an extended discussion, passed a motion setting the FAUW initial position. The motion approved the recommendations of the FAUW negotiating team. To start the discussion, Fred McCourt, Chair, FAUW Compensation Committee, and Chief Negotiator, presented background and the recommendations of the negotiating team, recommendations which had been endorsed by the Board. The other team members are Jim Brox and Frank Reynolds.

Quite apart from salary talks, the faculty association will be negotiating with management this fall for changes to the Memorandum of Agreement which governs relations between the university and its faculty -- including annual salary negotiations.

America prepares to vote

Six weeks from today is Election Day in the United States, and it's a presidential election year. As anyone who turns on the television or opens the newspaper knows, the incumbent Democratic president, Bill Clinton, is being challenged by the Republicans' Robert Dole of Kansas, with independent candidate Ross Perot running third.

Americans living outside the United States can vote in the presidential election, says one of them, UW's Jeff Shallit, who yesterday announced a Web page at http://math.uwaterloo.ca:80/~shallit/absentee.html with information about procedures for absentee voting.

Events of a cold rainy day

The pension and benefits committee is meeting all morning in Needles Hall room 3004. On the agenda: a planned review of the faculty and staff dental plan, a report from a subcommittee reviewing the sick leave and long-term disability plans, and -- as always -- information about how the pension fund investments are doing.

Math Week continues, though it doesn't look like much of a day for the "campus fest" that made the Davis Centre quadrangle exciting in yesterday's sunshine. Whether or not the "sumo wrestling, inflatable games, giveaways, free food" are a success outdoors today, there's an indoor event of interest tonight: Theatre on the Edge brings its improvisational comedy to Arts Lecture room 113 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $3 from the Math Society.

The Waterloo Public Interest Group sponsors a program at 12 noon in the multi-purpose room of the Student Life Centre. Topic is "Endangered Spaces: Algonquin Park with the Wildlands League".

And just for the record

In the Bulletin for last Wednesday, I said there had been a reception the previous evening to launch UW's new science and business program, which was true, and I said it had been at the Valhalla Inn, which was not. It was at the Waterloo Inn. And how come, in six days, nobody's pointed out my error?

CAR

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