I read with interest your recent Bulletin report (November 2002) of our strike and would like to offer a small, but significant correction. While it is true that there were improvements in salary and some benefits, the provisions in contracting out are actually a reduction of rights that were previously enjoyed by our members.

With this collective agreement the university now has the "unlimited" right to contract out, a right that previously first required that our union be informed of the contracting out, and have some say in suggesting alternatives.

The university administration has been quite vocal about it's so called "employment guarantees" but this is simply an overstatement. The policy now only describes the process that members will go through if they lose their current positions to contracting out. A true guarantee would prohibit members from losing their positions to contracting out.

In fairness, although there were gains in this contract, the losses in grievances (reduced timelines for filing), sick leave (restrictions on usage) and contracting out (loss of recognition of "work of the bargaining unit" and no provisions for keeping new positions or vacant positions in the bargaining unit) are the issues that led to the strike, and will likely remain issues for future negotiations.

Bruce R. Wolff
President, Wilfrid Laurier University Staff Association