We the undersigned members of YUFA urge our colleagues to vote against the proposed collective agreement for 2012-15. We thank YUFA’s collective bargaining team for its hard work and hard-fought accomplishments, but at this point in time we think the team should return to the bargaining table and work toward improving the proposed collective agreement.

Our most significant concerns focus on the following:

(1) The proposal does not adequately address the needs of YUFA faculty with special renewable contracts. (See Article 12.32)

(2) The proposal does not provide adequate course releases and in some cases significantly diminishes course releases for several categories of faculty with academic administrative positions, including graduate program directors, undergraduate program coordinators, and area coordinators. (See Appendix P)

(3) The proposal weakens the university’s commitment to universal progress-through-the-ranks faculty salary increases and raises the risk that these increases will become discretionary. (See Articles 16.01 and 22.07)

(4) The proposal introduces a problematic system of public course evaluations. (See Article 7.11)

(5) The proposal does not take substantial steps toward reducing faculty teaching loads to a level commensurate with our peer institutions. (See Article 18)

(6) The proposal offers a very modest research release program that will benefit only a small number of faculty, increase faculty administrative burdens, promote faculty competition, and damage faculty collegiality. (See Article 18.15)

(7) The proposal further entrenches the university’s reliance on a tiered system of instruction, with fewer regular faculty members, more teaching-stream faculty, and more contract faculty. (See, for example, Article 12.02.2)

(8) The proposal fails to include a clear and explicit acknowledgement that changes to the Pension Plan must be approved by the YUFA membership. (See Article 26.02)

Date: August 30, 2012

Signed: