And I though such indignities only happened on this side of the border! Michael T. Scoles, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology & Counseling University of Central Arkansas Conway, AR 72035 501-450-5418
>>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 7/27/2007 7:39 AM >>> On 27 Jul 2007 at 6:28, Robert Wildblood wrote: > Inside Higher Education reported today: > > Bishops University, in Quebec, on Thursday locked all unionized > employees off the campus, and suspended summer courses and programs. > University officials told The Montreal Gazette that they believed the > step would move contract negotiations forward. The talks have been > stalled by disputes on pensions, among other issues. Union officials > said that the lockout was not necessary and was hurting students. > > Any inside information about this issue, eh? Now that I'm retired, I'm not inside any more but I'll give it a try anyway. The chickens have come home to roost ever since we hired our new principal a few years ago, the last choice of the faculty and one we never trusted. We tried to block his appointment, failed, and a no- confidence motion we passed was ignored. He showed his style immediately on arriving at Bishop's by firing the director of computing without warning or explanation. We still don't know why he did it. And things went downhill from there. The approach is to act but never consult, at a university where one of the things we're proudest of is our collegiality. The non-faculty maintenance staff (a separate brach of our combined union) struck first, as a result of a failed attempt to negotiate their first collective agreement with a hostile adminstration. Meanwhile, negotiations on the collective agreement for faculty went nowhere. The adminstration thought it would help negotiations by locking us all out--faculty and librarians too. They're claiming a financial crisis which requires arbitrary firing and cutbacks in all segments of the university except administration, where senior administrators are doing such a good job they've just received salary increases. Oh yes, and new artificial turf for the football field. We don't think the financial problem is as bad as they claim, and suspect it's just a pretext to trash all the hard-won gains we've made in working conditions and pensions by trading them over the years for things the administration wanted. Weaking the pension plan appears to be one of their prime objectives. As for me, I'm no longer a member of the bargaining unit. Yet they've cancelled the cost-of-living increase I'm guaranteed by the collective agreement and pension plan, on the basis of which I agreed to retire. How about that, eh? Their heavy hand reaches out to break an agreement they made with pensioners, who are no longer even one of the parties subject to this dispute. Like the students whose classes they cancelled. I'm taking them to small claims court. Really. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 0C8 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
