Letters
SPGS letter to Principal Woolf copied to QUFA President Paul Young (August 10)
Support & Solidarity from Part-Time Profs at uOttawa APTPUO (August 9)
Support for QUFA from blogger Jeremy Richards, University of Alberta (July 15)
USW Local 2010 Supports QUFA (July 18)
PSAC Local 901 Supports QUFA as it enters Conciliation (June 20)
Please post your messages of support below! (Comments are moderated.) Scroll down. Most recent comments are at the bottom of the list.
I think I speak for many of my colleagues at Queen¹s School of Religion to say that we very much appreciate the work you are doing on our behalf.
Although QSR teaching staff are members of a separate bargaining unit within QUFA, we are nevertheless directly affected by the outcome of the current round of negotiations. We want to express our continued support for you in these difficult negotiations. [submitted August 2]
Richard Ascough
Queen’s School of Religion
Facebook
Twitter
Cupe Local 254 applauds the stance and stength of our Faculty in it’s approach to bargaining with the “Administration” on both Job security and pension issues.
To the QUFA executive and bargaining team,
I write as a member of QUFA who would like to express my support for the bargaining team. I plan to vote “yes” on the strike authorization resolution in order to support the bargaining team as strongly as possible. Thank you very much for all your hard work on behalf of QUFA members,
Sincerely,
Andrew Jainchill
Associate Professor
History
From: McGill-Queen’s University Press
Sent: June-28-11 10:36 AM
To: paul.young@queensu.ca; mansona@queensu.ca
Subject: Lock-out
Dear Friends,
Your bulletins are borderline brilliant: clear, without loaded vocabulary. Thanks very much indeed.
Best regards,
Don Akenson
From: Eric Carstens
Sent: June-28-11 4:22 PM
Subject: QUFA Bargaining Alerts
As we seem to be heading, again, down a slippery slope of uncertainty, I wanted to extend my appreciation to you and QUFA in keeping us up to date on the issues of bargaining a new collective agreement. I was pleased to read that finally, the costs of administration salaries and benefits have been brought up. I was reminded of the high costs of travel that Queen’s seems to support, as reported in the Nov 5 2010 issue of The Journal:
The 2009-10 Financial Statement is a seemingly impenetrable 30-page document, so the Journal spoke to Carolyn Davis, vice-principal (finance and administration), to clarify some of its concepts. For the 2009-10 fiscal year, Queen’s totalled a $14.7 million operating deficit.
Another large portion of the budget is spent on travel, totalling $20.8 million. Davis said the travel budget is a necessary expense.
“It’s an extremely important part of a professor’s job to stay up to date with what’s emerging,” Davis said. “We encourage faculties to use the travel budget to support that kind of development for their people.
“There are parts of it that are related to the principal and the vice-principal travelling to make contacts that will be useful for the University, for advancement and for relationships with the federal government, with the provincial government [and] with other governments,” she said. “We have the justification for that travel.”
When I read this, I asked myself, where does the $20.8 million go? As a faculty member, I pay my professional travel expenses either from my grants or my personal funds. Does this mean that the total amount of travel is only administrative travel?
Anyway, keep up the good work. Dealing with the other side seems to be difficult, non-collegial, and frustrating to say the least!
Eric
Dr. Eric B. Carstens
Professor
Department of Biomedical & Molecular Sciences
Just a word from one of many graduate students who support QUFA. Many of us recognize the important work your bargaining team is performing on behalf of Queen’s faculty. Likewise, we also see that this work is of equal importance to future generations of professors.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dinah Jansen
PhD Candidate (History)
Just a note to thank you for the consistently clear and community-enhancing Bulletins. We are very lucky to have the bargaining team and staff thinking so much and so carefully in these important communication updates. My many colleagues here and abroad in cultural policy and governmentality are getting a very clear idea of the new and continuing self-aggrandizing Queen’s administration. No matter what the reality is, I find it very re-assuring that QUFA in this key moment of testing is all that we could possibly hope that it could be.
Clive Robertson, Associate Professor, Art History and Graduate Program in Cultural Studies
Bests,
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Everyone in the Queen’s community is welcome to attend the QUFA Information Rally on Thursday, August 11 at the corner of University & Union. See notice on the Update page.
Roberta Lamb
Job Action Committee
Communications
It was wonderful to see such a good turn out at the QUFA information session yesterday. I was so impressed by the good will expressed by the Queen’s faculty members and librarians I spoke with who are united in standing up for the rights of the entire Queen’s community.
Best wishes and continued support,
Mary Rita Holland
Provincial NDP candidate, Kingston and the Islands
Go QUFA, go! We know and appreciate that you’ve worked tirelessly for hours, days, weeks and months to fight to preserve quality education and fair employment agreements at Queen’s. You are the professors, archivists and librarians who have enabled us to do our research, mentored us through our long hauls, whims and crises, and inspired us to pursue vocations within the academy. On behalf of all Queen’s students, thank you for your heroic patience and persistence!
I can only speak on behalf of myself, but as a graduate student, I fully support QUFA’s bargaining team, even if it comes to a strike that disrupts my research, teaching and coursework. You have my full support and I truly hope this situation can be resolved amicably and in the best interests of faculty and students. The neoliberalization of education, academia, learning and research is an embarrassment and a travesty for anyone concerned about intellectual integrity and freedom. Universities should not be subject to capitalist logic and intellectual production (including research and teaching) should not become commodities, but public goods that everyone is entitled to.
Best Wishes,
Jesse Hembruff
PhD Candidate, Political Studies
I wish to thank Chief Negotiator Allan Manson and the entire QUFA Negotiation Team for their tireless efforts over the past few months to secure for all QUFA Members a fair and equitable collective agreement. I am grateful for your professionalism, your transparency, and your endless reserves of patience as you endeavour to negotiate in good faith with the Administration. I’m proud to be on the QUFA team!
Dr Robert G. May
Communications Support Person (CSP)
QUFA
I am much encouaged that negotiations are continuing. Thanks to our colleagues on the negotiating team for their hard work on all our behalf. Your efforts and sacrifices are much appreciated.
While we all sit here waiting and wondering, I want to express my appreciation and confidence in the negotiating team and the executive. As much as we academics always want to know what’s going on to analyze process, I’m sure the outcome will be better without all of us nitpicking.
Thank you to the team and the executive for your continuing efforts and amazing stamina. The decisions you make will be the right ones and we will support them.
As we all wait to hear the results of the meeting this afternoon, I’d like to add my voice to those expressing support for, and confidence in, our wonderful Bargaining Team, our Executive, and our Job Action Readiness committees. You’ve maintained a strong and resolute voice for all of us and you’ve prepared for all contingencies. Your energy, stamina, and level of commitment have been remarkable.
Thanks to all of you (that includes you, Robert, for your superb communications work) and best wishes for your deliberations.
A grateful thank you to the negotiating team, the executive, the job action committee, QUFA staff and all other volunteers. We couldn’t do without you!
Whatever the outcome of the ratification vote, I know that all of us want to express thanks to our outstanding negotiating team and everyone at QUFA who worked so hard on our behalf.
I would like to offer my congratulations to the QUFA Negoitiating team, the QUFA executive, Paul Young, and the Job Action Committee as well as the many others who made QUFA members aware of the change in the negotiating tactics of the Administration. All of you made amazing contributions to your local and deserve the gratitude and appreciation of your local, the University, and your fellow locals on Campus.