Dear OCADFA Members:

A General Meeting of the OCADFA Membership will take place from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm on October 29th to, first, finalize the list of items to be negotiated in the upcoming round of OCADU/OCADFA Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) and, second, elect the Members of the OCADFA Negotiations Committee. (A call to Members to stand for election for the Committee will follow in a separate e-mail. Members may also stand for election from the floor on the day of the Meeting.)

The Meeting will take place at the United Steelworkers Hall, Toronto. The Steelworkers Hall is a ten minute walk from OCAD (100 McCaul) to 25 Cecil Street. Go west on Dundas Street, North on Beverley Street a few blocks, then turn left at Cecil Street.

Bill Leeming, OCADFA Chair of Negotiations, will begin the meeting with an overview of what is involved in the bargaining process as specified in MoA Articles 11 & 12. Discussion and voting will follow concerning the key issues to be included in the Negotiations Mandate.

The following 10 key issues were identified during the OCADFA Members Focus Groups (conducted September 17 – October 1):

  1. Wage increases (including raising salary grid ceilings)
  2. Benefits (multiple bargaining units)
  3. Professional Development Fund (multiple bargaining units)
  4. Studio courseload reduction
  5. Limits on class size
  6. Job security for Teaching Intensive Stream (including currency language)
  7. Removal of CLTA caps
  8. Graduate Teaching and Supervision
  9. Merit Pay v. PTR
  10. Strike/Lockout

The raising of further issues from the floor for discussion and voting will be solicited at the Meeting.

Please note that the main purpose of the Meeting is to give the Negotiations Committee a sense of what the Memberships most requires of this round of bargaining. But given that there are no guarantees of outcomes in bargaining, the Committee has to be given some flexibility with respect to how we bargain with the Employer. What I am saying here is that the Employer has equal opportunity to define the scope of bargaining. We might have to move in directions that are unforeseen as a response to the Employer’s direction in bargaining. That being said, ultimately the Membership has the final say at ratification about whether to accept what we manage to negotiate with the Employer.

Please note that the following individuals have agreed to have their names put forward on the Slate for the OCADFA Negotiations Committee:

  • Eric Steenbergen, Studio Technician
  • Bogdan Luca, Sessional Instructor, Faculty of Art
  • David Griffin Lecturer (TIS) Faculty of Art
  • James Olley Lecturer (TIS) Faculty of Art
  • Ron Wood, Continuing, Faculty of Art
  • Robin Kingsburgh, Continuing, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences

The Slate remains open for further names. Additional names may be added on the day of the Meeting.