Individual members of CAUT may not be aware of the Defence Fund. Since it was established in 1978, the fund has grown to include about 25 member associations of CAUT with about 10,000 faculty and librarians. It now has assets approaching $10 million. The purposes of the fund are to provide strike benefits and other assistance to associations during strikes or when unfair labour practices occur during negotiations.

During the last six months the Defence Fund has been called upon to provide support to faculty associations facing aggressive tactics from militant management. There have been two calls on the fund for support. They are described in more detail below, but it is worth noting that these and other recent cases indicate a growing convergence of tactics by university administrations. That indicates the continuing need for the solidarity among faculty, librarians and their associations that has also characterized the recent period.

At its meeting held in October the Board of Trustees of the fund approved the payment of strike benefits (and interest-free loans to cover benefit payments and as a "line-of-credit") for the Trent University Faculty Association (TUFA) in the event of a strike. TUFA had then already faced the 'rush to conciliation' tactic also used in 1995 by the administrations of Memorial and Mount Allison. The tactic failed against TUFA as it did in the other cases but this new use of the tactic provides evidence of the convergence, not to say conspiracy, noted above.

After the Trent strike began the Defence Fund provided financial support so that the members of TUFA were able to come to an acceptable agreement without undue hardship. The fund also arranged a visit of solidarity by representatives of the fund to the picket lines at Trent. Ten faculty from campuses from St. John's to Winnipeg picketed for several hours in bracing weather and attended a large support rally with TUFA members and hundreds of students on November 21. A second group of Trustees just missed their planned visit when the strike (happily!) ended.

The second case approved for support by the fund is at York University, where an action for unfair labour practice during the collective bargaining process will be partially paid for by the Defence Fund. This is the second successive year in which associations have requested help from the fund to prosecute such actions (last academic year they arose at Memorial and Winnipeg). Such support has always been a secondary purpose of the fund. However, despite several sometimes bitter strike actions with varying issues in earlier years it is only recently that associations have needed to pursue unfair labour practice complaints during bargaining and sought support from the fund. The trend is not an encouraging indication of good will on the management side.

On a positive note, the fund ended its fiscal year last May with a surplus for the year in which it paid out by far the largest strike benefits in its history. In fact the income to the fund from its investments was sufficient to cover strike benefits for the very long and difficult strike at Manitoba. There is, as faculty and librarians everywhere understand, no grounds here for complacency. Had the other contract negotiations which came very close to strikes not been resolved, the outcome for the fund would have been negative. The Defence Fund is most successful when it helps to provide the self-confidence on the part of faculty, librarians and their negotiating teams that allows collective bargaining to reach a fair conclusion without strikes.

Robert Rosebrugh is Chair of the CAUT Defence Fund.