Tensions rise as MUNFA begins to organize for better treatment

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Photo by Scott Graham (via Unsplash)

Following a negotiation meeting between the MUN Faculty Association (MUNFA) and the Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador (MUNL) bargaining team on September 8th and 9th, 2022, tensions are beginning to rise between the faculty and the university.

During the negotiations meeting, the organizations discussed tenure status, changes to retirement benefits, lack of transparency regarding equity data, job security, salary on Assisted Educational Leave, governance, wages, workload, and a lack of explicit language within documented agreements.

The negotiations meeting comes after ongoing bargaining since January 27th, 2022, after MUNFA rejected a non-negotiable proposed by MUNL. Since then, MUNFA has been undergoing lengthy sessions of discussion and bargaining with the university, advocating for fairer treatment and better pay from the institution.

MUNFA’s current negotiating plan, detailed in an information bulletin from November 9th, 2021, focuses on several specific goals they hope for the university to achieve, including:

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  • Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
  • Indigenization
  • Better conditions for contingent faculty
  • Addressing issues of faculty complement
  • Climate action
  • Governance, openness, and transparency

In a statement to The Muse Editor-in-Chief, Jenna Reid, MUNFA had this to say:

“…MUNFA members and their Negotiating Committee are committed to reaching a fair deal at the conciliation table. This has been a long and frustrating process: MUNFA’s collective agreement expired on August 31st, 2020 and negotiations with the administration’s bargaining team began in December 2021, yet MUNFA members are scarcely any closer to having a contract that reflects their needs and priorities than they were two years ago. Despite filing for conciliation in early June and making themselves available throughout the summer, the Negotiating Committee could not secure a meeting with the administration at any time before September, and we don’t currently know when the next meeting will be. There are serious issues that need to be dealt with, including job security for precariously employed faculty; overwork as a result of the falling levels of tenured faculty; and real commitments to improving governance in the university as well as equity, diversity, and inclusion. MUNFA has presented proposals on all of these issues and is ready and willing to make a deal with the administration that will ensure MUNFA members, as well as their students, are treated fairly.”

MUNFA Organizing, Member Engagement, and Communications Co-ordinator,
Tannara Yelland

In their latest negotiations update, MUNFA notes that MUNL’s bargaining team representatives were “…unprepared to discuss substantive issues of concern to MUNFA members, either through their own proposals or in response to MUNFA’s.”

Further updates to follow as the bargaining process continues to unfold.

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Randi Whelan
Randi is an outspoken 2nd-year English student, minoring in Political Science. He hopes to spread awareness about human rights and social issues. As a transgender student, he is active in many of MUN's 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, and you will find them volunteering in their spare time.