Welcome Back &/or Carry On, Members!

Dear Friends and Members!

Whether you are returning from a brief time off between semester assignments or the summer break, there’s a few new and different things that all faculty members should be aware of! Your Union didn’t take any time off this summer and we’ve been working around the clock to improve your working conditions and protect your rights. That said, we don’t know when you’re having problems unless you TELL us, and even if you’ve been lead to believe that there’s nothing that can be done, it doesn’t hurt to let us try. For those of you in a hurry, just read the “too long; didn’t read” version by skipping to the bolded sections. (TL;DR = bold)

We are here for you so you can be here for your students and colleagues, but we need your help to do it. You can help by making sure all of the new members in your department get this welcome message and know that they’ve joined a faculty union that is working hard to protect their rights from day one! When you forward them this message, CC me on it and I’ll personally reach out with words of welcome and some tips and tricks! It’d really be a great help to me if you would, because it will be months before the College turns over accurate employee lists to us.

Now, before I get too long winded, here we go!

Summer Updates:

• CMC was hella busy during the Summer! And a good thing, too – we won a pretty big workload grievance for the Nursing department – more news on that soon! But, after years of unequal workload and not following the collective agreement, the workloads in Nursing have been re-allocated equitably going forward and those members who were underpaid during the period of our grievance will receive retro pay. The Arbitration Award clearly established that the Union can grieve even long-standing violations WHEN YOU COME FORWARD with a complaint.
• Parking spaces at Interurban have been re-painted & re-organized according to the grievance settlement that we got over insufficient parking! Part of the Settlement includes increased enforcement in September and January, too. Add to that license plate recognition and we hope that our members’ experiences finding parking at IU are much better this year. But if they’re not, we can file a new grievance directly at Step 3, so be sure to let me know if you still have problems finding parking.
• If YOU got & paid tickets at IU during the time of the grievance, the college will pay you back if you apply before December 20 using this IU Parking Ticket Refund Application Form. The Employer will refund parking fines paid by members of the CCFA Union for parking at Interurban Campus from March 13, 2023, to May 18th, 2024. Members of the CCFA Union may submit applications for refunds until December 20th, 2024, so don’t delay! 

Important Tips & Reminders for Semester Start-up:

• DO NOT AGREE to any changes in your workload without Union consultation, especially if additional students have been added to your sections or you’ve been given all new preps with no warning.
• If eligible, you need to claim your first round $250 Lifestyle & Wellness Spending Account benefit before Aug 31. Manulife has been terrible about properly approving these, so be sure you use the correct forms, fill them out completely, and inform us if your claim is denied right away!
• We know there are a lot of questions about how to sign up for parking this year, for the time being please keep your 2024 parking permit in your vehicle! Camosun is moving to a license plate recognition (LPR) system for staff parking. This means you’ll need to have your plates registered to use the staff spaces. We are also hoping to make it easier for continuing members to use our Alternative Transportation Program to OPT OUT of parking and get a free bus pass instead!
• Some of you may consider teaching additional courses in ProSIT since the Stronger BC Future Skills Grant was renewed, – there was a CamNews story about it just a short while back. And while it is true some of the work there is “non-bargaining unit” (not union) work, SOME of it could count towards your service in the CCFA and you might be entitled to all your regular rights and benefits. We are happy to check over your contracts and make sure they are written properly!
• The employee BBQ on Aug 27 is being held at the Wilna Thomas Building on the patio next the Sherri Bell Hall between 11:30am and 1:30pm. A bunch of us are going to wear our CCFA T-Shirts to the BBQ. Join us if you can! Don’t have one of our T-Shirts? You can buy yours online and pick them up at our Admin Office in Y221.
• You have important rights under our Faculty Appraisal language in the Collective Agreement! Do not agree to having an appraisal without reviewing our blog post about it! If you aren’t sure that you are due to be appraised, contact me and we will review your appraisal history together.
• Please submit your PD Applications & Reimbursements by Thursday, September 5th to ac.nusomac@DP-AFCC for review at the next PD Committee Meeting.

I just want to take this moment to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to serve as your president again this year. It is going to be an adventure for us all, I know it doesn’t seem possible, but we are already getting ready to bargain again! We know increases to wages and benefits are always priorities for our members, but without great language that we can protect and defend, wage increases are constantly eroded by increases in our workloads, shadowy secondary scales, and the failure to replace full time faculty members. So, it’s going to be more important than ever to “work together as one” if we want to be able to bargain for improved working conditions in this round.

You’ll hear more about this from me in the coming months, for now, welcome back and I hope you have a great semester start up!

-Lynelle Yutani

Featured Image: Your 2024 Delegation to the Federation of Post Secondary Educators (FPSE) Annual General Meeting; from left to right Erin Dibattista, Frank Jankunis, Steve Popple, Brent Fisher, Jeanne Puritch, Peter Ove, Lynelle Yutani, Michael Stewart, Francis Adu-Febiri