TO: All MUNFA Members
FROM: The MUNFA Executive Committee
DATE: February 21st, 2024
SUBJECT: MUNFA-LUMUN Solidarity
As members may have seen in the media and on Newsline, conciliation talks have ended between MUNFA’s on-campus colleagues at the Lecturers’ Union of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador (LUMUN) and the university administration. LUMUN’s contract expired August 31st, 2020. Despite sending the administration a financial proposal in November of 2023, LUMUN was only able to get the administration to the bargaining table after applying for conciliation and being assigned a government conciliator.
The MUNFA Executive stands firmly in solidarity with LUMUN members. Precarious work for some increases the risks of precarity for all.
Per Clause 26.38 of the MUNFA-MUN Collective Agreement, “In the event of a strike or lockout of employees not in the MUNFA bargaining unit, ASMs shall not be required to perform the duties of those employees.” The MUNFA Executive strongly encourages members to be on the lookout for requests to take on the work of LUMUN members in the event of job action and discourages members from doing so. Members with direct concerns related to this are asked to contact munfa@mun.ca.
Members also hold the ability to picket in solidarity with LUMUN, so long as regular teaching is not cancelled. The MUNFA Executive, in the event of job action, strongly encourages MUNFA members to show solidarity and support for our colleagues by joining picket lines and/or posting solidarity posters to office doors. The MUNFA office will have a stack of printed posters on hand that will be distributed to departmental liaisons. More information on this will be shared in the coming days.
The administration’s pursuit of lowering labour costs using low-paid, precariously employed people damages a core value of the University: academic freedom. LUMUN members have no access to tenure thus their protections of academic freedom are weaker than those of MUNFA members. The more precariously employed per course instructors are used as short-term cost-saving measures, the more the broader principle of academic freedom is undermined in the long-term. It is crucial that we resist the erosion of core university values, like academic freedom that come with the growth of precarious academic labour.
Source: https://munfastrike2023photos.wordpress.com/2023/02/01/graphs-and-data-viz/
LUMUN members provide a core mission of the university, that of teaching, yet do so in a situation of declining conditions of work. They are paid substantively less than MUNFA members for the same work of teaching. LUMUN teaching contracts typically do not begin until the first day of classes which means LUMUN members are effectively expected to do preparatory work unpaid.
Collective fights lead to collective wins – LUMUN has MUNFA’s support because a better university means better for us all.
