The Ontario Labour Relations Board handed down its decision on May 26 ruling in favour of the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association that full-time and part-time faculty should be in a single bargaining unit. As reported in the April issue of the Bulletin, full-time and part-time faculty at the University of Western Ontario voted 65 per cent in favour of certification. With the newly ascertained trade union status the parties were left to resolve whether or not full-time and part-time faculty should form a single bargaining unit or two separate units.

In its recent decision, the Labour Board stated that "Although the job expectations of the full-time faculty and those of the faculty with limited duties are different, and that the faculty with limited duties are not required or expected to do research and administrative work, they have in common an interest in academic work and scholarship and, to all intents and purposes, together they are distinctive from other categories of university employees in that they are responsible for the academic program which must be completed by students. There is more that binds the two categories of faculty than separates them."

Negotiations for a first collective agreement between the newly certified UWOFA and the University of Western Ontario Board of Governors are under way.

Source: OPSEU, Negotiations News, September 8, 1998.