Fall letter to faculty from the VCCFA President, Taryn Thomson
Bargaining
The bargainers are working almost full time this month to get us a deal. If you have any questions, please contact any member of the bargaining committee: Frank Cosco (vicepresident@vccfa.ca), John Demeulemeester (chiefsteward@vccfa.ca), Alison Woods (awoods@vcc.ca), Karen Brooke (kbrooke@vcc.ca). Lorraine Rehnby (lrehnby@vcc.ca), or Nahid Ghani (nghani@vcc.ca).
Here is the latest bargaining bulletin (from September 28th), in case you missed it:
VCCFA Update:
In the post-secondary sector, the summer is traditionally a downtime for bargaining and both sides took the time to recharge and start preparations for what should be the closing phase this fall. Since our last Bulletin we have met once with management in September.
We have six days of face-to-face meetings scheduled for October and will be using most of the other days for caucusing and preparations, so October will be pretty well wall-to-wall bargaining.
Provincial Update:
We are not alone in having bargaining come to a head in October. About half of the 17 FPSE public sector locals are in a similar situation. The FA at CNC (Prince George) is conducting a strike vote this week because of their management’s concessionary stances and we wish them well.
Outlook
The provincial mandate is very limited on costs other than wages. Our recent and continuing work in caucus has been to refine our demands on rights and non-wage costs. It is a challenge. Local VCC management may throw an additional challenge or two at us. This upcoming month of meetings will tell. We will do our best to keep members as informed 9S possible.
Retro Pay
When a deal is reached and ratified, we will work with the college to process a full retroactive package on wages, dating from whenever that happens back to April 1, 2022, and covering all individual work done from that date. This has already been achieved at some FPSE locals which have settled, so we do not expect and will not accept a challenge to that position. Over the April 2022 to March 2025 three-year span of the new Collective Agreement wage increases are, dating from each April, about 3. 7% in year one, 6.75% in year two (which we are about halfway through right now) and 3% for year three, starting next April – which over the three years compounds out at about 14%.
Changes in the office
For over 20 years, the person managing the VCCFA office has been Audrey Vickaryous. Audrey is going to retire at the end of November, and we have hired Amarys Joseph to take over. The email address to contact the office will remain the same: info@vccfa.ca. We will miss Audrey very much but wish her much joy in her retirement. We welcome Amarys warmly to the team.
OurAGM
Please plan to attend our AGM this year on November 30th ! This year the AGM will be hybrid to accommodate folks who prefer to attend virtually. In a few weeks you will receive a survey from us, as we need to know how many of you will attend in person so we can order the right amount of food. As is tradition, the AGM will be held at the Croatian Cultural Centre, and a buffet will be served once our business is complete. It is a wonderful opportunity to break bread with colleagues, and we hope you will join us.
Retirement Incentives
As agreed between the college and the VCCFA, 5 retirement incentives will be offered this year. Deadline to apply is November 15th at 4:00 pm. Here is the eligibility criteria:
An employee who possesses the following qualifications shall be eligible for a retirement incentive:
- is a permanent regular faculty member at the time of retirement;
- is eligible for a pension under the College Pension Plan;
- has a minimum of 10 years contributory service under the Public Sector Pension Plans Act or as a permanent regular faculty member with the College;
- is on the maximum step of the salary scale; and
- resigns for the purpose of retirement.
If you have questions about this or anything else, please don’t hesitate to reach out.