A
History of CUPE 4163
In
September 1997, the University of Victoria was in the midst
of a three-year campaign of spending cuts. Two weeks into
the fall semester, Teaching Assistants in the departments
of Physics and Chemistry received an email notifying them
that they would be paid for 14 weeks rather than the previous
17. This amounted to an 18 per cent wage cut.
Where
a previous organizing drive in 1992/93 had lacked unity between
Arts and Sciences students, failing in the process, the direct
attack on the economic well-being of science graduates mobilized
this constituency into action. Executives of the Graduate
Students' Society, recently affiliated as Local 89 of the
Canadian Federation of Students, took the lead in responding
to the Administration's agenda.
A
committee was struck by the Graduate Council to investigate
the options available to graduate-student workers. Students
from a number of departments participated in the committee,
polling grad students on their views toward organizing. It
soon became clear grad workers needed a Union to protect their
interests as employees, independent of the GSS, with its focus
on their role as students. Legal trade unions had been the
only organizations capable of obtaining binding contracts
with the University, with the exception of the faculty association,
which had been recognized after a 17-year battle.
Further,
BC's Labour Relations Board had recently ruled that the number
of different unions in any workplace should be limited. The
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), in the midst of
negotiations on behalf of clerical staff in Local 951, and
the union of outside workers in Local 917, became the obvious
choice. A strike by CUPE 951 employees in late 1997 on the
issue of pay equity was narrowly averted after the university's
positions shifted.
It
was in this climate that the Graduate Council struck an Organizing
Committee, and, on 19 December 1997, Linguistics grad Melissa
Svendsen was elected founding president and Physics grad Shawn
Bishop founding secretary of CUPE 4163, UVic's Education Employees
Union.
On
8 January 1998 the first Union cards were signed, and roughly
50 cards were turned in every week, with some departments
showing 100 per cent support for the Union. The organizing
effort was extended to Computing Services (COUS) employees
and Second Language Instructors - all UVic workers classified
as 'Specialist / Instructor'. By early
March, 61 per cent of eligible members had signed cards.
On
31 March 1998, in a brief, uncontested hearing before the
BC Labour Relations Board, CUPE local 4163 was certified as
the official bargaining agent for Teaching and Lab Assistants,
Language Instructors, and COUS employees at UVic.
In
April, a general membership meeting took place, where a constitution
was adopted and elections held for the executive committee
and contract committee. Negotiations for a first contract
with the University began in May 1998. The two sides were
unable to reach agreement after months of bargaining, and
a final settlement with a five year term was imposed by a
mediator. On 22 February 1999, almost a year after negotiations
began, CUPE 4163 members had signed their first collective
agreement with UVic.
SESSIONALS JOIN THE UNION
Throughout
this period, Sessional Instructors grew increasingly dissatisfied
with their treatment by the University. An ad hoc Sessional
Organizing Committee (SOC) was formed.
A
set of Guidelines for Short Term Employment had been adopted
by the University in 1996 after two years of negotiations
with sessionals. However two months after the conclusion of
negotiations, UVic administrators and the Board of Governors
refused to appoint a 20-year-veteran of the School of Music
to the position of 'Senior Instructor,' as stipulated in the
Guidelines. The Labour Relations Board (LRB) ruled that the
Guidelines did not constitute a collective agreement, and
that the faculty association was not the official bargaining
agent for sessional instructors.
The
SOC approached the UVic Faculty Association, requesting full
voting rights for sessionals - a prerequisite for certification
by the LRB. However the Association voted down a proposed
amendment to its constitution including sessionals as full
members. A wedge had been driven between UVic instructors
along the line of tenure, in a sense, dividing the "haves"
from the "have-nots."
The
"have-nots" decided to form a Union.
In
January 1999, a year after TAs organized, sessional instructors
began signing union cards to form 'Component 3' of CUPE 4163.
Sessionals at 11 other Canadian universities were already
CUPE members, and by June, UVic's Sessionals were certified.
They signed their first collective agreement on 20 December
2000.
SOLIDARITY AND POLITICAL ACTION
With
legal recognition by the Province and the University, CUPE
4163 entered a new round of contract negotiations in 2002
and 2003. This occurred in a changed political climate, where
the right to free collective bargaining was being threatened
by a government intent on privatization and weakening the
power of organized workers. In the spring of 2002, CUPE BC
called for a Solidarity Vote of all locals based on the principle
that "an injury to one is an injury to all." This
move was supported by 90 per cent of CUPE 4163 members.
A
year later, the Union again endorsed the idea of sympathetic
job action to support striking workers. Teaching Assistants
at UBC were in the midst of a three-week strike against their
employer, and the BC Liberals responded by legislating away
their right to strike. The TAs defied this legislation, blockading
their campus with the backing of other campus unions. CUPE
4163 and other BC unions voted to take sympathetic action
if a contract was imposed by the government. In the end, a
mediator was appointed and UBC TAs won an 11 per cent wage
increase.
At
UVic, Sessional instructors successfully worked within a government-mandated
wage freeze and signed their second Collective Agreement in
March 2003. Members voted 98 per cent in favour of this contract,
which included higher wages for most by adding an aditional
step to the pay scale, and increased job security for many,
by reworking the formulas for 'long service' status.
Components
One and Two entered negotiations with UVic in the summer of
2003; TAs were demanding "wage parity with UBC and SFU."
This round of negotiations called on CUPE 4163 to test its
organizational muscle for the first time. Members participated
in a work-to-rule campaign and a 'traffic slow-down' in January
2004. Although TAs failed to achieve their goal of wage parity,
the student TAs were awarded guaranteed fellowship money.
Component Two members were successful in gaining wage increases,
and recognition for some as full-time continuous employees
entitled to a range of benefits. Members voted 78 per cent
in favour of this contract, although it did not include across
the board wage increases.
While
much work remains to be done, in the last seven years significant
strides have been made toward the recognition and fair compensation
of a previously ignored body of workers at the University
of Victoria. These initial victories will have to be built
upon in the years ahead.
updated
June 8, 2005
Dates in CUPE National History:
http://cupe.ca/www/history/4990
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