Open House and Holiday Functions Message from Local 240

Local Officer's Meeting Nov. 28

Open House and Holiday Functions Message from Local 240

Greetings,

We hope that our return to work has been progressing well with your students. Unsurprisingly, the management "plan" for semester completion was to simply tell us to do the work necessary to save the semester. Despite this, as the consummate professionals we are, we've been getting this work done. We've heard that students have generally been fine, and are just relieved to be back in class. Again, this is largely due to the professionalism and care shown by faculty.

Unfortunately, we have also returned to work under false pretenses. Bill 178, the back to work legislation, clearly stated that the provisions of the current Collective Agreement are in effect until a new agreement is ratified. Based on this, College management should have issued new SWFs when requested by members due to changed delivery dates and the additional assigned work of semester completion. Their obligation to do so under Article 11 is clear. Instead, management has decided to follow Council’s direction, violate the CA and refuse to issue new SWFs. We know this direction has come from the College Employer Council and their legal firm, Hicks-Morley.

Given this situation, the Union is advising all members to only perform work that appears on your SWF, apart from the semester completion work, which we are asking every member to document, and which will be important when SWFs are referred to WMG.

This means that we are encouraging faculty to not attend Open House or other volunteer functions on behalf of Mohawk College. We fear that to do so undermines the very return to work argument we are making about all work needing to appear on SWFs. With Hicks-Morley calling the shots at Mohawk now, this fear is well-founded. An exception to this direction is obviously in place for faculty who have Open House on their SWFs, or as explicitly assigned components of coordinator duties.

We hope you understand that this direction from the Local is not intended to impact students or to negatively impact the programs we have created and coordinated, and that we teach in. It is to account for the fact that, unfortunately, we are dealing with an employer who is blatantly defying both provincial legislation and the Collective Agreement. In addition, they are receiving this direction from the College Employer Council and Hicks-Morley. These are the same parties who have repeatedly misled faculty during the negotiations process.

A final note is that, given administration's approach to return to work, the Union suggests that it might be a good idea to give a pass on Mohawk College holiday celebrations this year. The Union executive sure will. Given the state of labour relations, we feel it would send the wrong signal for members to participate in these activities. As always, we respect and trust you to do what is right for you.