Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC

“Contingent academic faculty across North America have a common goal: to build strength through a shared strategy of organizing and bargaining,” said Cindy Oliver, President of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators and one of the keynote presenters at this year’s International Conference of the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labour (COCAL).  The event was held last week in Quebec City and brought together faculty representatives from Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

Voters in BC have had quite a year. Following the May 2009 provincial election, they were stunned to find out that an issue the BC Liberals had promised not to enact-the harmonizing of our provincial sales tax with the federal Goods and Services Tax-was suddenly a done deal. The announced about-face was made at a July news conference with the Premier and his Finance Minister. No doubt, both men hoped that the controversial move would soon lose political traction as people prepared for summer.

The federal government is pushing hard to make a significant change in the way Statistics Canada conducts the 2011 Census.  If the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada, Tony Clement, has his way, the long form portion of the Census will be eliminated, and replaced with a voluntary data-gathering instrument.

With close to 540 delegates drawn from all provinces and territories in Canada, the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (CAF) met in Saint John's Newfoundland and Labrador last week to consider the road ahead for trades training in Canada.

Delegates at the 30th Annual FPSE Convention voted to elect members of the new FPSE Executive.  The six-person Executive was confirmed following the Convention last month.

The following positions and candidates were acclaimed by the Convention:

1.    President, Cindy Oliver
2.    Secretary-Treasurer, George Davison
3.    First Vice-President, Nanci Lucas

There is a lot of momentum created when the representatives of 10,000 post-secondary educators in BC unite around a single plan for action in their sector. That's what happened last week as delegates at FPSE's 30th Annual Convention unanimously supported the Convention Action Plan, a plan that will target the organization's resources, staff and leadership on five key priorities. Those priorities included:

Bargaining, organizing and holding governments accountable are major items at FPSE’s 30th Annual Convention

Working conditions have direct relation to classroom conditions.

A key to improving the learning environment for post-secondary students in BC will be improving working conditions for educators, say the people who work in BC's post-secondary institutions.

Workplace stress comes in many forms, has many effects and, ultimately, can prove to be damaging not just for the worker who experiences the stress, but also the workplace where the stress is generated. It was with that in mind the our Federation, in conjunction with the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), developed a survey instrument to measure and assess the kind of stress that post-secondary educators are experiencing here in BC.

Community groups, arts and culture organizations, unions, seniors and students have banned together to press the provincial government to re-think its budget priorities. The group is called the Coalition to Build a Better BC. This Saturday, April 10th, they have organized a rally for 12:00 noon at the Vancouver Art Gallery.