A Short History of Bargaining

College faculty have had a consistent bargaining agenda for almost five decades: equity, fair compensation and reasonable control over the work that we do. But it’s never a straight line forward. In recent years, the landscape of postsecondary education has changed dramatically with new digital technologies, creeping privatization, and historically unprecedented reliance on non-unionized precarious faculty. In the face of system-wide attacks, we have to fight like never before to protect quality faculty jobs and quality college education.

Here’s a look at some key moments in our history of bargaining.

1967 – Terms of Employment prior to a collective agreement

  • Titles: Affiliate Master, Assistant Master, Associate Master, Master, Senior College Master
  • Maximum Salary: $14,000 plus $800.00 for a Master’s Degree and $1,200.00 for a Ph.D.
  • Benefits: pension, sick leave (including gratuity), life insurance and health benefits
  • Work Load: 16 to 27 hours as determined by the chair. Teachers of “craft subjects” to be at the higher end of the range.

1971

College faculty vote to join the Civil Service Association of Ontario (CSAO) later to be renamed OPSEU. Part-time and Sessional employees barred from unionizing by statute.

1975 – Estey Arbitration Award

  • Title: Teaching Masters, Counsellors and Librarians
  • Salary range: Teaching Masters and Counsellors – $7,524 to $21,337, coordinators allowance up to $1,250, elimination of degree allowances. Librarians – $9,148 to $17,013. Partial-load teachers – $8 to $20 per hour.
  • Benefits: LTD, OHIP, bereavement leave, two month’s vacation for teachers, one month for counsellors and librarians.
  • Workload: Academic Post-Secondary – 16 to 22 TCH per week; Craft, Skill, Elementary and Secondary – 22 to 27 TCH per week; Counsellors and librarians have 35-hour work week.
  • Union rights: recognition, seniority, grievance

1975 – First Collective Agreement

  • Titles: Teaching Master, Counsellor, Librarian
  • Salary range: for Teachers & counsellors $12,000 to $24,000 in 16 Steps; for librarians $12,200 to $19,000. No degree allowances
  • Benefits: Sick leave (including gratuity), two month’s vacation for teachers, 22 to 30 days’ vacation for counsellors and librarians. Sabbaticals.
  • Work Load: maximum teaching hours set at 19 per week (180 contact days per year) for post- secondary and 21 (190) for others including nursing. No limits on class sizes or number of sections. Counsellors and librarians have a 35 hour-week.
  • Union rights: instruction assignment review

1977-1979

  • Salary range: Teaching Masters and Counsellors – $14,463 to $28,252, coordinators allowance one or two steps on the scale, Librarians – $14,964 to $22,694. Anti-Inflation Act limits on salary increases.
  • Workload: “Rolling Average” TCH introduced – teaching hours set at 19 per week (180 contact days per year) for post-secondary and 21 (190) for others including nursing. Otherwise maxima of 20 and 22 hours respectively. No limits on class sizes or number of sections.
  • Union rights: Time off for union business

1979-1981

  • Salary range: Teaching Masters and Counsellors – $15,478 to $30,230, Librarians – $16,013 to $24,283. Partial-load – $11 to $25 per hour with progression.
  • Benefits: Dental Plan with co-pay

1982-1984

  • Salary range: Teaching Masters and Counsellors – $20,985 to $43,034, Librarians – $21,710 to $34,569. Partial-load – $14.72 to $34.34 per hour with progression.
  • Union rights: Joint Insurance Committee

1984 – First Faculty Strike

  • Precipitated by unrecognized work done by nurses. All that was recognized was teaching contact hours. Study commissioned by arbitrator, accepted proposal of management (basis of current Art. 11). Faculty union suggested formula closer to Ryerson.
  • As a result, college system had to hire 1,100 FT faculty to assign all of the extra work.

1985-1987 – The Workload Formula

  • Salary range: Teaching Masters and Counsellors – $23,833 to $47,941, Librarians – $24,656 to $42,895. Partial-load – $16.72 to $38.25 per hour with progression.
  • Benefits: 10 days PD allowance, sabbaticals (now called Professional Development Leave) for 2% of total faculty, Prepaid Leave, Post Retirement Extended Health coverage
  • Workload: The SWF – implementation of the comprehensive 44-hour per week workload formula for Teaching Masters with credit for prep, evaluation, meeting, etc. as well as TCH. Paid overtime with limits.
  • Union rights: Workload grievance, increased layoff rights including technological change, No Discrimination clause, seniority for faculty absorbed from predecessor institutions (e.g. nursing faculty)

1987-1989

  • Salary range: Teaching Masters and Counsellors – $25,064 to $52,252, Librarians – $26,488 to $46,752. Partial-load – hourly rate prorated on equivalent salary grid.
  • Benefits: Survivor Benefits, Vision Care, Hearing Aid Plan
  • Workload: Nursing now labelled post-secondary. Workload formula gets minor improvements

1989 – Second Faculty Strike

  • College wanted to remove SWF (then known as Art. 4, now Art. 11) and dispute over wages

1989-1991

  • Title: Professors, Counsellor and Librarians
  • Salary range: Librarians get pay equity. Full-time Faculty – $31,740 to $58,710. In-Service Teacher Training Certificate Program
  • Benefits: Loss of sick leave gratuity for new faculty, sick-leave buyout, short term disability plan, vacation parity for librarians
  • Union rights: Comprehensive layoff language, Employment Stability, Employment Equity language

1991-1994 – Wages & Benefits

  • Salary range: Full-time Faculty – $33,644 to $66,259 (Step 18) plus a lump sum payment. Salaries to be set between High School and University. Partial-load – $40.46 to $88.55 per hour.
  • Benefits: Family Care Leave, paid Parental Leave Plan, Partial-load sick leave benefits, same-sex spousal benefits
  • Union rights: Official French language collective agreement

1993 – Social Contract

  • Rae days, among other betrayals of workers and the labour movement.
  • Opened up CAATA Collective Agreement to enforce Rae days.

1996

  • Mass loss of FT faculty through layoffs and/or attrition (approx. 20%)

1996-2001

  • Salary range: Full-time Faculty – $38,067 to $72,158 (Step 20). Partial-load – $45.76 to $96.47 per hour
  • Benefits: Tuition subsidy

2001-2003

  • Salary range: Full-time Faculty – $39,993 to $ 76,567 plus recognition allowance.
    Partial-load -$48.08 to $102.36 per hour
  • Union rights: Improved layoff language, Expedited arbitration

2006 – Third Faculty Strike

  • Workload formula
  • Introduced quality education as part of communications strategy

2006-2009

  • Salary range: Full-time Faculty – $45,614 to $96,529 (Step 21). Partial-load – $54.84 to $129.06 per hour
  • Benefits: Extended benefits for Partial-load Professors
  • Workload: Workload Pilot Projects, Alternate Workload Arrangements

2009

The employer imposed terms and conditions included the following, and differed from their offer vote:

  • joint union/management committees suspended
  • union grievances suspended
  • modified workload arrangements
  • Independent Medical Examination language added
  • union can request names and addresses of members
  • Librarian definition changed
  • bullying/psychological harassment
  • 43 day split vacation
  • Family Day added
  • Changes to 11.08
  • Drug card

2009-2012

  • This CA was the result of an employer offer vote. In addition to what is listed below, strict grievance time limits in Article 32 overrode the ability to have flexible time limits under the CCBA.
  • Salary range: Full-time Faculty – $56,657 to $102,186. Partial-load – $68.12 to $136.62 per hour
  • Benefits: Drug card
  • Workload: Modified Workload Arrangements
  • Union rights: No bullying or psychological harassment

2012-2014

  • Salary range: Full-time Faculty – $58,946 to $102,186. Partial-load – $70.87 to $136.62 per hour
  • Job security: Partial-load first right of refusal

2014-2017

  • Salary range: Full-time Faculty – $59,653 to $106,853. Partial-load – $71.72 to $142.86 per hour
  • Job security: Probationary period reduced to one-year; Partial-load internal candidate 6 months; No-layoffs due to contracting out for duration of CA
  • Concessions: Article 2 moratorium for duration of agreement; In-service Teacher Training Program ends in 2019; Probationary faculty cannot grieve termination; Section caps eliminated; Added economic viability to Art. 2

by Ron Golemba, former Local 558 Chief Steward, long time CAAT-A union activist, and a member of the 1987, 1989, 1991 bargaining teams.