The Vanier College Teachers’ Association
Welcome to 2024! All the best for the new year!
This first News Bulletin of 2024 contains a substantial overview of the negotiation agreements, as well as other important information and a few reminders.
Negotiations
We hope that your holiday period was restful after the intense end of the fall semester. It certainly has been a busy time for the negotiation committees. After many months of negotiation, culminating in a massive mobilization and a series of strike actions (thanks to you!), we have arrived at a global agreement (both sectoral and central tables). The sectoral table tentative agreement was obtained late on December 23rd. And on 29 December, the CCSPP acknowledged a central table agreement in principle. The elements of these agreements were then presented two weeks ago to the different bodies: Instances conjointes CSN, ASPPC, and Regroupement Cégep (FNEEQ), as well as to all the other instances of the different unions within the Front Commun.
Your VCTA reps, Hakim and Hugo, were there, in Québec city, to receive the proposed agreements, and to debate whether they were good enough to bring back to you. On Friday afternoon, 5 January, the Regroupement finally decided that both agreements contain a decent amount of advancements and voted that they should be debated in local GAs. The consultation is taking place right now, between 15 January and 20 February. As announced, the VCTA will debate and pronounce itself next week, on 24 January.
Overview of Proposed Agreements
In anticipation of the VCTA General Assembly next Wednesday, 24 January, we wanted to give you an overview of the content of the agreements. Documents have been distributed already, but here we go into a bit more detail, and try to relate the items to the local reality at Vanier. The contract we are discussing would retroactively begin on 1 April 2023, and be valid for 5 years to end on 31 March 2028.
SECTORAL TABLE
You will remember that the sectoral table negotiations were conducted as part of an alliance of all cégep teachers – members of FEC-CSQ and FNEEQ-CSN – called ASPPC: Alliance des syndicats des professeures et professeurs de cégep.
The project proposes advancements in all of the 6 themes that were adopted at the start of the negotiations. If it is adopted, the following elements would make it into our Collective Agreement.
- It would be possible for a poste to be released when the teacher holding it is declared in total permanent disability.
- If a teacher has 10 years or more of seniority, their access to an available poste would be the same as a MED coming from another college. Currently, MEDs have priority regardless of the seniority of local teachers.
- Non permanent teachers who have accepted a partial load would be able to refuse to add a course to their workload without consequences.
- A new annual allocation of 13 FTE would be added to implement a NES factor in the CI calculations for 30 hour courses. This would greatly benefit Phys Ed teachers. The details of the calculations are expected before 31 March 2024.
- An additional 40 FTEs would help reduce the workloads related to clinical stages in nursing. And the agreement contains another 15 FTEs for stage coordination in other disciplines.
- New measures related to sexual violence at work would be included in the Collective Agreement, including the clarification of the importance of creating a healthy work environment exempt of any form of violence, physical, psychological, or domestic.
- At the request of the employer, a pilot project would be established to allow nursing teachers, on a voluntary basis, to supervise stage students on the weekend. We will need to discuss this locally.
- The proposal includes 100 new Cont Ed Charges to be distributed starting in 2024-25.
- The College would need to inform the union at the end of each year of their plans in Cont Ed for the upcoming year, and how they plan to use the charges.
- There are clarifications and limits set for RAC as well.
Another considerable series of gains concerns specifically online teaching. There are many measures in the proposal to frame the development of online teaching across the réseau. So far, there was nothing concerning online teaching in the collective agreement.
- The Collective Agreement would clearly state the precedence of in person teaching in college education.
- A clear process would be established for the implementation of online teaching projects. Colleges would have to consult teachers as the first step. We fought hard for this to happen at Vanier, and still Cont Ed would not really consult with teachers before offering online courses. Now it would be written in the contract. They also need to follow the project as it progresses, and formally evaluate its results.
- It would be possible to request in presence exams for online classes.
- Only teachers would be able to provide online teaching.
- Teachers would have access to training, resources, and support. And the additional workload required for online teaching would be recognized with 19 extra FTEs.
- As a counterpart to setting boundaries for online teaching, the partie patronale insisted on the creation of a committee to evaluate “issues” related to Academic Council. The government actually wanted to eliminate the Academic Councils altogether. But the establishment of the committee is a compromise that our negotiators managed to secure.
And finally, the tentative agreement includes revisions to our salary scale which constitute an investment of $14 million, not counting the central table raises (see below). The sectoral agreement project contains salary adjustments for most of us, especially early career teachers. As a result, the masse salariale would grow by 1.6% in the regular sector, and by 2.7% in continuing education.
- The rapid progression echelons (6 months instead of a full year) would be extended to include echelons 5 and 6. This means faster access to higher salaries for early career teachers.
- Echelons 1 to 12 are considerably enhanced.
- Also, all teachers above echelon 5 who have not reached the top will move up 1 echelon on 1 July 2024.
CENTRAL TABLE
The central table is concerned with salary, insurance and other elements that affect all 420 000 public sector workers part of the Front commun. It is negotiated by the CCSPP, the Comité de coordination des secteurs public et parapublic.
The salary parameters of the agreement in principle are the following. The first year of the contract (which actually ends on 31 March 2024), we would have a 6% wage increase. After that, a raise of 2.8% the second year, 2.6% the third year, 2.5% the fourth year, and 3.5% the fifth year. This is almost twice the initial 9% offer the government presented to us in December 2022, however it remains lower than the initial union demand of inflation + 9% over 3 years.
For the last three years of the contract, some form of income protection was gained. The increase rates of the last 3 years of the contract could be adjusted up to 1% per year if inflation is greater than our negotiated increases. For example, in year three, we have a 2.6% increase. At the end of year three, on 31 March 2026, if the actual inflation is determined to be greater than 2.6% – let’s say 3% – our increase that year would be retroactively adjusted to 3%. (2.6% + 0.4% to reach inflation level.) If the difference between our raise and inflation is greater than 1%, we only get 1% more, so a maximum of 3.6%.
This means that our maximum possible total parametric salary increase over the 5 years of the contract can reach up to 20.4%. Of course, this is on top of the adjustments to our salary scale, from the sectoral table, which would result in further increases for many of us.
Another important gain of this agreement is the contribution of the employer to our collective insurance. The amount of the contribution is considerably small: $150 yearly for individuals, and $300 for families. However, the fact that our employer would now contribute to the insurance makes it possible for us to push for better contributions in future negotiations.
Other elements of the agreement in principles include:It would now be possible to extend progressive retirement over 7 years instead of 5.
- The maximum age to contribute to RREGOP would move from 69 to 71.
- Teachers who take parental leaves would no longer be required to time their return with the start of a semester. A few other details have been included concerning parental rights. And the text of the parental rights sections of the collective agreement will be revised to make them follow inclusive language throughout.
Beyond that, there are considerable gains for psychologists and skilled workers, as well as better conditions for acquiring vacations that affect many of our comrades in the public sector, but not us directly.
And finally you have probably noticed that the employer gave up its demand of adjusting our RREGOP down to compensate for RRQ increases. This is a major gain for all labor unions, across the country, as it could have set a precedent.
NEXT STEPS
It might be important to clarify what can happen now. The VCTA General Assembly will discuss and debate the adoption of the two agreements summarized above on 24 January. The consultation period for all local unions extends up to 20 February. If a majority of unions and voting members adopt the proposed agreements, the next step will be the signature of the new collective agreement after the final revision of the text. If this double majority is not reached, FNEEQ will have to reconvene and decide how it wants to continue the negotiations. We would no longer be in a Front commun.
So far, at least 17 college teachers unions have adopted the agreements.
Now the decision is yours.
General Assembly 24th
We will have a General Assembly on 24 January, in the Auditorium. (Has it been hyped enough?) This will be the time to present, discuss, debate, and make up our minds about the proposed agreements. A representative from the ASPPC negotiation committee will be present. It will likely be Phil Lagogianis, who most of you know. Please review the attached presentations.
To signal your intention to attend the GA, please RSVP to the announcement email before Monday, 16h00 (4pm).
The vote will be anonymous, and we will distribute paper ballots. We need to count the votes in order to report the numbers to CSN. The discussion will not be accessible online, nor will it be recorded. As stated in our bylaws, all members in good standing present at the meeting can cast a ballot. If you wish to become a voting member, forms will be available at the GA and are always available in the office.
Strike Pay Cheques Available at C-101
We remind you that the cheques for your strike pay are available at the union office, C-101. If you have not yet collected your cheque(s), please pass by the office when you have a chance. Note that all unclaimed cheques will self-destruct on… joke. 😜
Conseil fédéral in Québec
Our union federation, FNEEQ, holds its bi-annual Conseil fédéral in Québec city on 31 January, 1 and 2 February. The VCTA has four votes. As it stands, we have one delegate spot available for any member who would like to join us. If you are interested, let us know. And let us know as well if you would like to review the agenda. Expenses are reimbursed. We can also pay for a substitute, if you need one for your class(es).
Have a great semester!