On March 27th the UPEIFA Executive Committee formally notified the Employer of our intention to negotiate a new Collective Agreement to secure much needed improvements to our working conditions and our students’ learning conditions. As we have done in past rounds, we also made clear our intent to maintain “rotating chairs” at the bargaining table to allow us to bring in subject matter experts as needed. In addition, we made clear that we as reserving our right to have UPEIFA Members attend the bargaining table as observers. These letters are available here.

As part of that notification, we also sent a request for important information that will help us to develop and cost our proposals, which is available here.

In our initial meeting with the Employer, it was agreed that the parties would negotiate protocols and exchange “housekeeping” items ahead of substantive bargaining. Our next meeting will take place on Friday, May 29 and we anticipate that intensive bargaining will occur over the weeks to follow. We are committed to transparency and engagement with members throughout this process.

To join our advisory groups ahead of bargaining, please fill out this survey (if you have already joined our advisory groups, you do not need to fill out the survey again).

Over the last year, the UPEI Faculty Association has been preparing for bargaining by meeting with Members to get a better sense of what they like about their working conditions and where they see room for improvement. After more than a dozen consultation meetings and a bargaining survey, our team developed a bargaining mandate which was unanimously approved by Members at the Fall General Meeting. This mandate includes:

Improve Our Teaching Supports

• Stabilize and increase faculty member complement
• Protect against “thinning” of faculty complement when new programs/faculties are created, or when student cohorts are increased in professional programs
• Explore ways to improve job security for contract members and potential for conversions
• Improve minimum guarantees for pedagogical support

Invest in Our Research/Scholarly Activity

• Increase minimum course releases available for significant levels of research and/or scholarly and creative activity

Recognize Our Work

• Propose a workable mechanism to recognize unscheduled teaching
• Address the significant accumulation of unused course release credits
• Acknowledge “on-call” work of members in BU2
• Propose better incentives and supports for Chairs/Directors/Coordinators
• Ensure fair and reasonable workloads in AVC (BU1 and BU2)
• Recognize and support “unseen” work in teaching, such as managing student accommodations

Prioritize Our Academic Expertise

• Protect and increase faculty and academic librarian input on administrative search committees
• Ensure that academic decisions remain in the hands of academics, not administrators
• Establish structures to ensure collegial governance in non-departmentalized faculties and in the Library
• Establish joint committees on research and teaching, to ensure transparency and meaningful consultation

Secure Equity in Compensation, Hiring, and Tenure/Promotion

• Remove student opinion surveys as the sole basis for hiring decisions for contract members
• Ensure greater recognition of “service” for tenure, permanency, and promotion
• Establish an equity audit of compensation across the University

Address Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Technological Support

• Respond to concerns regarding AI’s potential impact on job security, intellectual property, and privacy
• Ensure transparency and meaningful consultation when adopting new technologies
• Establish access to real-time tech support in teaching contexts

Improve Our Compensation and Benefits

• Ensure a median position in total compensation compared to other similar universities
• Improve benefit entitlements for contract members
• Improve access to vacation for members in year-round professional programs

At this time, we are pleased to introduce the members of your bargaining team:

• Dr. Margot Rejskind, Lead Negotiator 
• Dr. Barry Linkletter, Chemistry, BU1 
• Katelyn Browne, Library, BU1 
• Dr. Andrea Bourque, Co-Lead Negotiator for BU2; Diagnostic Services, BU2 
• Dr. George Jia, Economics, BU1 
• Dr. Michael Arfken, Psychology, BU1 

Our collective commitment to improving access to teaching and research supports, reasonable workloads, and shared governance is integral to building a better UPEI.