Dear Sisters and Brothers,
If you have not read the news yet, we wanted to inform you that WUFA and the administration are continuing their negotiations. However, President Alan Wildeman released a letter to WUFA two days ago with a threat that WUFA’s terms of employment will change unless they agree to the administration’s terms by Monday evening. These changes include but are not limited to:
1. Cutting off all benefits and Green Shield for WUFA members
2. Refusing to honour grievances and arbitration from WUFA
3. Stopping all requests for Professional Development and required memberships reimbursement
The full letter can be found here.
There are two important points to consider:
1. The President’s position on the university’s “fiscal challenge” has already been debated here.
2. His salient assertions in the letter to WUFA (and previously stated during the CUPE Local 1393 strike) is the idea that a forced choice is a true choice. Threats like these to any employees, including unionized employees, are problematic and may be designed to try and scare members of unions (including WUFA) into accepting large concessions demanded by the administration. While we are relieved that the administration has not locked out WUFA, one begins to wonder whether these threats are (once again) designed to push a union into a strike position so that the administration can claim that they care about the students and imply that a union on strike has no interest in students’ well-being.
Spread the word, brothers and sisters. Remember that WUFA supported us during our own negotiations earlier this year, so let us support them when they need it. This is not a time to back down. This is a time to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters at WUFA.
We call to you, our members, to raise concern about using threats that disrespect and underappreciate the valuable efforts of any party on the university campus (e.x., the valuable work of WUFA members and their right to a fair collective agreement). The faculty and students do not exist because of President Alan Wildeman. In fact, his position exists because of you, us, and the faculty on campus. Do not let him forget that. We urge you to write him e-mails (president@uwindsor.ca; wildeman@uwindsor.ca ) and make phone calls to remind him of that.
In solidarity,
CUPE 4580 Executive Team