University faces labour challenges, as unions negotiate

Barbara Black

Despite Concordia’s blue-collar image, the university has had only one strike — by library staff in the early 1980s, so long ago that some of its participants have trouble remembering it. Co-operation and accommodation have generally prevailed, and continue to do so.

CUFA, which represents 665 full-time faculty and librarians, has a collective agreement that will last until May 31, 2007.

However, negotiations are in progress with several bargaining units, and others wait their turn.

The contract with the part-time faculty association ended in April 2002. CUPFA represents 1,200 part-time teachers, of whom 85 per cent are active voting members.

“We have progressed very little in our negotiations,” said CUPFA president Maria Peluso. “While we were ready to sit down to negotiate as early as the fall of 2001, the university were not prepared. We started to formally negotiate in February 2003.”

She said the main issues for her members are job security and stability; improved benefits, office space and representation on university bodies are also concerns.

ACUMAE represents all the permanent non-unionized employees, mainly managers. It has about 200 active members out of 235 eligible, and the expiry date of their current contract is up.

President Miriam Posner said negotiations started last May and continued through the summer. The outstanding issues are “compensation practices, pay equity, professional development, lack of recognition for performance, work-loads, lack of clarity as to hiring and reclassification practices, and the communication of such; there appears to be little written procedure.”

She also identified “the protracted nature of the negotiating process” as an irritant, and “the fact that negotiations only begin once a contract ends and not prior to the end date.”

CUPEU represents about 300 professional employees, defined as those who are not managers of other permanent employees but are engaged in varied, primarily intellectual work. They have been without a contract for over two years. Bargaining was slow getting started, but has been going on for over a year.

The issues for CUPEU members are salaries, improved benefits for the temporary (i.e. contract) employees who make up one-quarter of the membership, dental and vision benefits, educational requirements for job postings, professional development and job security.

The trades union, SCOMM, is negotiating, but president Eddy Ginocchi said that his 96 members feel their talks are “almost at a standstill.” Their contract expired March 31, 2002. The technicians (CUSSU-TS) and the librarians are also negotiating.

Negotiations with CUSSU, the 500-member support staff union, have not yet begun, although their contract ended in 2002. Could it be that there are just too many unions?

Suzanne Downs, president of CUSSU, said no, because each one has members with common interests.

However, Gilles Bourgeois, Director of Human Resources and Employee Relations, said that having 10 bargaining units (seven certified unions and three associations) incurs substantial costs, hampers the organization of work, and restricts mobility for employees.

“No other university in Quebec has the number and fragmentation of units we have,” he said. “It adds a substantial cost in union liberation time that could be better directed to employees.

“Mergers and consolidation by the unions themselves would be a welcome development and when one looks at sectors where this has happened it has served to reduce conflict and improve relations.

“Traditionally, one of the few things labour and management have been able to agree on in all sectors is to have larger bargaining units.”

Common concerns

CTR asked union leaders about their common concerns. They said they perceived an increasingly confrontational attitude on the part of Employee Relations. This includes the department’s insistence on educational qualifications, which restricts some employees from changing jobs.

Downs said that many Concordia employees have worked for the university a long time, and would like to think they have mobility within the organization. Insistence on specific qualifications that might not be directly relevant to their jobs disappoints and threatens employees who feel their years of experience now count for nothing.

René Lalonde, president of the technicians’ union, CUSSU-TS, said that some managers know how to work the system, and change an employee’s job title to avoid permanency and the job security that goes with it. A newly created job these days is unlikely to be designated as permanent.

Maria Peluso, president of CUPFA, said the increasing number of part-time and casual employees at the university is leading to “dwindling loyalty” in an institution that has had a strong sense of community.

Eugenia Xenos, a negotiator for CUPEU, said, “Many more temporary employees are being hired for what are in effect permanent jobs. It’s a disturbing trend that tends to abuse the goodwill of the employees and leaves staff, and often their managers, frustrated and embittered. It also means we lose excellent employees who can get permanent jobs elsewhere.”

Asked to comment, Bourgeois said, “The university faces the same challenges of all employers in Quebec. It has an aging work force and a dynamic environment requiring continuous improvement in knowledge and ability. Like all public employers, it faces a tight and restrictive financial situation.”

Job security

For the university, a key issue is the generous job security enjoyed by employees. In theory at least, permanent employees have jobs for life.

If a position is abolished, the employee goes on availability; that is, the university tries to provide suitable alternative work and the employee continues to receive salary. Since Quebec has no mandatory retirement, this could continue until the employee dies of old age.

More than 20 employees are on availability now. Naturally, this incurs a cost that management would like to cut back. However, Geoff Selig, president of CUPEU, says that job security is a benefit that employees were given when they were hired, and it shouldn’t be cut back without substantial compensation.

Bourgeois refused to comment, saying that “negotiating through the press and is a bad and counter-productive practice and the university is committed to ensuring that issues raised at the negotiating table continue to be addressed at the table.”

Disputes

In general, Lalonde said, Employee Relations seems increasingly to interpose itself between the manager and the employee when a dispute arises. Downs agreed, and said that this often turns a low-key situation that could have been amicably resolved into a confrontation.

Bourgeois bridled at the suggestion that Employee Relations should not be involved in the resolution of issues.

“The fact remains that in a resolution there is a union interest, not just an employee interest, and there is an employer interest, as there is a supervisory interest. The sooner there is a recognition and respect by all parties, the sooner will there be an effort to reduce conflict rather than artificially escalate it.”

For her part, Peluso called labour relations at Concordia “primitive,” and management’s attitude “hostile.”

“There are few labour-management committee meetings to resolve conflicts. The situation has gotten progressively worse. The number of grievances and arbitrations speak to the negative attitude towards unions and labour associations at Concordia.”

On this as on many things, however, opinions diverge. Brenda Grant, president of the part-time teachers in Continuing Education (CUCEPTFU), signed a six-year contract in April that extends to 2007. She raves about the interest-based negotiation process that was used to reach an agreement.

“It was very successful. There was a lot of goodwill on both sides, and we developed a great deal of trust.”