MUNFA wrote to President Kachanoski in July of this year expressing our desire to enter into collective bargaining with the goal of negotiating a new Collective Agreement. President Kachanoski replied to MUNFA shortly thereafter, indicating that he had instructed Associate Vice-President Sean Cadigan to arrange a first meeting of the Parties. Unfortunately, an invitation to an initial meeting was not promptly forthcoming, even after MUNFA reminded the university. The first meeting was finally held on October 31, 2017 where MUNFA was advised that the university was not prepared to begin negotiations until the week of December 11, 2017 at the earliest. It seemed this long delay was because the university recently hired a new Director of Faculty Relations who does not begin work until November 27, 2017.
Unfortunately, such delays are not a rare event at MUN. However, MUNFA is still disappointed that bargaining will not begin until almost five months following our initial request. MUNFA will use this time to work further on our contract language, and negotiating strategies, in order to best address our members’ needs in this time of proclaimed university budget austerity. These needs remain important to Academic Staff Members even in the face of a bare-bones budget that, to our dismay still allows the massive, new Core Science Facility – MUN’s own Muskrat Falls – and the Animal Resource Centre, adjacent to the Medical School, to rise around us.
The employer’s bargaining team includes:
- Sean Cadigan, Associate Vice-President (Academic)
- Mark Abrahams, Vice-President (Research ) Pro Tempore
- Alice Gaudine, Dean, Nursing
- Greg Naterer, Dean, Engineering
- Laura Robinson, Dean, Grenfell Campus
- Amy Surprenant, Dean Graduate Studies
- Ian McKinnon, Acting Director, Faculty Relations
MUNFA’s Negotiating Committee:
- Jon Church (Chief Negotiator), Medicine
- Dan Duda, Library
- Alison Coffin, MUNFA Executive Officer (non-voting)
- Robin Durnford, Grenfell Campus
- George Jenner, Earth Sciences
- Kurt Korneski, History
- Leroy Murphy, Cooperative Education Coordinator, Business
- Dave Peddle, Grenfell Campus
- Nathalie Pender, Grenfell Campus
- Nicole Power, Sociology
- Richard Rivkin, Ocean Sciences
