MAFA to begin negotiations at end of month
When all the caps and gowns have been put away and the Convocation festivities have died down, administrators and faculty will head to the bargaining table to begin negotiations. The Mount Allison Faculty Association's (MAFA) collective agreement comes to an end on June 1. At that time, it remains in place for one year unless replaced by a new contract. Negotiations between MAFA and the administration normally proceed throughout the summer and through the fall. The last negotiations were finished towards the end of first semester in 2007 with an agreement reached before the winter break.
Each side has appointed a negotiation team. For MAFA, the Chief Negotiator is Dr. Stephen Law (Economics) and other members of team are Anita Cannon (Library), Dr. Rob Cupido (History), Dr. Gina Grandy (Commerce), Dr. Andrew Irwin (Math and Computer Science), Dr. Juan Carlos Martinez (Modern Languages), and Dr. Renata Schellenberg (Modern Languages). The administration’s team has Chief Negotiator Dr. Hans vanderLeest (Dean of Arts), Ron Sutherland (Head of Human Resources), and Bruno Gnassi (Head of Library).
According to Dr. Stephen McClatchie, Provost and Vice-President Academic and Research, the last round of negotiations saw the two sides meet approximately thirty-five to forty times. He stressed that, “what is important is that all bargaining take place at the table.”
MAFA was founded in the 1950s as an organization for faculty and librarians. In 1982, it became a certified union under the New Brunswick Industrial Relations Act and serves as the bargaining agent for faculty and librarians.
MAFA has been preparing for the negotiations for a while. In order to determine what articles to open for negotiations, seventeen separate subcommittees met throughout fall terms, focusing on issues ranging from Childcare to Academic Freedom to Tenure and Promotions. The suggestions from the subcommittees were then considered by the Collective Bargaining Committee and presented to the negotiation team.
Law stated that he hopes to be able to bargain well throughout the summer. As Dr. Rick Hudson, President of MAFA, wrote in the March 26, 2010 MAFA newsletter, “although in the past we have negotiated throughout the summer and fall before arriving at a new agreement, it is our hope this year to move more quickly. It is simply better for all of us at Mt. A to resolve the uncertainty that labour negotiations occasion.”
McClatchie noted that “there are many things in the current agreement that work very well [and] that have been in place for many agreements.” He continued that having an agreement such as the one between MAFA and the administration that has been around for twenty-five years creates “…a certain stability in a collective agreement” and “makes for relatively straight-forward negotiations.”
The MAFA negotiations come at a tumultuous time in faculty associations’ negotiations. University of New Brunswick still has yet to reach an agreement with their faculty union after almost a year of negotiations. However, as McClatchie pointed out “negotiations are very local and site-specific.”
With respect to student’s involvement in the process, McClatchie pointed out that because negotiations are governed under the New Brunswick Industrial Relations Act, the “…SAC, and the student body as a whole, is not a party to the negotiations.” However, he did note that “in terms of negotiations, it’s the informal role that’s important […]I think that’s the way to do it…to express the concerns to both sides and to recognize that it’s neither purely the faculty association nor the administration who decides, it’s truly a negotiating process.” When asked for his opinion on the role of students in the negotiations, Law commented that, “[i]n my view, the primary role of students in the negotiations is to continue to remind administrators of issues that are important to students: class sizes; recruitment and retention of excellent faculty members; and a collegial governance structure which allows faculty members academic freedom and the ability to choose for themselves and their students the kind of teaching environment that best serves the goals of students and faculty.”
While students have no formal role, the SAC has submitted a series of recommendations to the chief negotiators for both sides. “Above all else, the [SAC] feels strongly that student interests should be considered at the negotiating table,” said President Sam Gregg-Wallace. “We trust both parties will consider our recommendations and we will follow the proceedings with great interest.”
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