23 Comments on “Locked out”
- AUNBT is moving to a new Website
- American Association of University Professors (AAUP) strongly opposes ban
- AUNBT AGM 25/4/17 @ 1pm
- AUNBT Holiday Hours
- AUNBT mourns the passing of former AUNBT President Jack van der Linde
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Miriam Jones: Ah, this is sad news. Deepest condolences to his family and friends.
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Will van den Hoonaard: Is there room in your report for Professors Emeriti/Emeritae?
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Barbara Fisher-Townsend, Ph.D.: Interested in when we will hear the details and when the ratification vote will take place.
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Evelyn Richards: Wow I am so glad that you have t agreement so soon. Hopefully energy can then go back to…
- Invest in the Academy: UNB Needs to Fix its Spending Priorities. | Beerocracy Now!: […] I lay out my arguments for why I oppose the exorbitant funding of the Why UNB? campaign at the…
Heads up AUNBT:
My grandmother, a good union lady herself, heard from her friend, who overheard the local MLA’s wife tell someone, that AUNBT is going to be legislated back to work. I thought you guys should know. WE SUPPORT YOU!!
The official lock-out notice from President Campbell contains “only” three sentences. The second one contains a grammatical error. Just sayin’ . . .
Can anyone provide the comparison the Professors are using to justify their numbers? It sounds like they are using an average of Canadian universities which compares universities where professors might instruct 2-3 times the number of students. So not really an accurate comparison.
Workload varies. UNB Faculty generally teach 18 credit hours of (6 courses) for many programs. This is probably the MAXIMUM taught at a Canadian University and at the comparative list of 14 universities agreed upon by Management and Union. Professors are hired to perform three functions: Teaching, Research, Academic Service. While you can talk to someone in AUNBT executives for the enormous data they have, and the professional independent analysis performed, let me say that based on data I have seen, UNB faculty salaries are the lowest of the comparative 14 universities. Class sizes vary at UNB, and we are disadvantaged by not having teaching assistants to assist in marking exams. In short, UNB has a rather heavy workload.
I have 2 questions…
1) Of the profs on strike, how many will make more on strike pay?
2) How many profs make more than $100,000 per year? A document I read a few years ago on the UNB site seemed to show that a lot of profs fall within the $60,000 range…and, hey, what so wrong about a PhD/ researcher/ educator getting $100,000 when Eddy Campbell makes $250,000?
Eddy Campbell makes closer to $400,000 and probably over if you consider benefits and other compensation that UNB does not publicly report like other universities do. Don’t have any numbers on how many members will make more on strike pay but part of the reason our faculty is “top-heavy” is that UNB management has been refusing to replace people who retire or otherwise leave.
Thanks for the quick reply. I have also heard that Eddy Campbell have free living expenses..I guess that should be factored in as well.
Final statement… Why is it so wrong for a professor to make $100,000/ year. They have 7+ years of university education, extensive research backgrounds, and most I have met have gone above and beyond for their students. As a ‘poor’ student, its easy to ‘not feel bad’ for someone who makes so much, but in context, $100,000 is probably well below what they deserve!
To Just sayin’:. Please refer to Page 174 on the 11th CA between Management and Union about comparable universities. Why don’t you use your analysis there? That is the only valid and agreed upon list.
I wouldn’t say it’s the only “valid” list but it is the list you are all using to make your case better. I realize it is agreed upon, but to put things into perspective don’t just grab 14 universities that are of the highest paid and say oh boo hoo we are only making on average 103k and that professor working in a university with cost of living 3x higher than Fredericton is making 126k (on average). What professors need to realize is that comparability doesn’t mean identical. You are already making the average professor salary in Canada with the 9.5% increase being offered you will be amongst the above average. You should be glad to get that because nobody else will.
As per your request I took a look at the 14 universities listed in the CA and UNB still makes around the same as everyone else except for 4 of the listed universities, which make about 20% more. The rest only have a 3-5% difference and UNB is making more than 3 of the listed universities. So what’s so terrible about the 9.5%, I’d say that’s pretty good. However, I am just a student, what do I know?
Thank you (Just sayin’) for doing that.
I think you know a whole lot and looking at matters from a considerate and thorough point of view ,and all my respect goes to both faculty and students (the two arteries of universities) for TELLING IT AS IT IS.
That said, and not having the full data set from aunbt in front of me, even the 2010/2011 do not agree with what you are saying (and UNB faculty are in a worse position now, in fact at the bottom of the list). Take a look at the following data that CBC used:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/unb-professors-take-strike-action-1.2494165
Regarding the 9.5%, I would agree that would be a nice deal that COULD be fair IF UNB Faculty are brought in line with the average salary first (The Catchup Phase) then are offered the increases of 3.2, 2, 2, 2% (The In-line Phase). This will then make a big difference in the starting salaries of new faculty.
I just took a look at the information posted by CBC and while UNB is near the bottom of the list (there are still 2 universities making less) they aren’t that far off from most of the other salaries. There are a top 5 that make about 20% more, but the union seems to think that UNB should be at the top of the list, forgetting to take into consideration those top universities come from a much wealthier province and have higher costs of living. While I’m not saying that professors shouldn’t get anything, I do feel the 9.5% over four years is quite fair, especially when you include the fact that they will also be receiving 2.5% per year on top of that as long as they aren’t at their salary ceiling. At this point they are just being greedy, because no one else (for example, support staff who make on average 30-36k per year) is going to get an offer like that.
Campbell’s salary divided up amongst all profs is only about a 500$ raise each. Whereas the profs want 25% or a 15000 raise on a 60k salary.
I don’t need a PHD to show me that math doesn’t work.
If all stayed the same, how much of a raise over the 4 years would they be getting as a result of regular yearly percentage increases? I don’t think you can include that in your grand total of $15,000. Do the profs really want 25%, or is that something that you read on CBC?
The average professor at UNB makes $103,875 based on 2011-2012 figures. Out of 65 universities in Canada UNB falls in the middle of professor salaries. That being said, the universities ahead of UNB only have a 3% spread, except for 4 top paid universities that do indeed make about 20% more. There are about 30 universities that have lower paid salaries than UNB. The professors here are not hard done by. They want 26% over 4 years, although I believe they may have adjusted that to 20% over four years. Not including the extra 10% over four years that they receive for progression through the ranks. 60% of the members in this union make more than 100k per year and no one is saying that they shouldn’t. There is only enough money to go around and for those focusing on the Presidents salary, keep in mind he is the President of 2 universities and makes less than most university presidents in Canada.
Current grad,
Actually even according to the AUNBT their wage proposals of 14% for two years,or the over 20% for the four year offers they have made, do not include step raises.
So they will get at the end of the strike whatever wage increase is negotiated PLUS their annual step progression increase through the ranks.
Besides my math was really bad. On purpose. In actuality a 25% raise over four years would not be 15000 on 60000, but more due to the compound percent increases per year. I was just too lazy, and still are too lazy, to do that math.
At the end of four years, I’d the AUNBT got their wishes, anyone making currently 60k will be over 80k when wage and step are included. Can you seriously sit there and say anyone in the world deserves a 20k/33% increase in pay over 4 years? seriously?
If you can, then this strike situation really doesn’t have a solution. Even if everyone was flush, those levelof wage increases is insane and irresponsible.
That is standard practice in strikes. It’s actually for the best. It protects union members who may have been tempted to cross picket lines.
@ Johnny student…you are almost right…no one deserves a ‘33%’ pay increase…except someone who is not making a comparable salary to begin with. As a graduate student who has spent 8 years at UNB, I could never afford to work at UNB upon graduation starting at $60,000.
Lets keep it simple…if you made $10,000 a year and decided to strike since your counterparts were making $20,000 a year, would it be fair for the public to say that you should not get a raise because the percentage is too high? Its about comparability.
Yes, as some say… ‘a lot of NBers do not make this much’ ($100,000)…but does that mean someone with a PhD should not be compensated?
Why Not? You are probably living on 15-20k including tuition and materials, books rtc. You’d be jumping to a salary of 60k.
You can sit there and tell me that living a couple more years at 15-20k without school costs while making 60k won’t put a serious dent into your student loans? There’s easily 25k per year to dump into the loans.
Once the loans are paid off, 4-5 years for 100k, then one can start thinking family, car, house or whatever floats their fancy. The money’s there at 60k, what is not is the life priorities.
Let’s see, 19 + 10 years of school + 5 years of paying it off, makes you 34. With 5 years of salary progression from your starting 60k and five years experience. I’d say that is not Ioo shabby for a 35 year old for a career path.
Johnny,
$60000 is a lot of money, for sure. Of course none of you have mentioned taxes, or individual situations (having kids before returning to school, for example). So, after taxes, etc., that easy $25000 you seem to think anyone can just do without seems to be most of what is left over after a $60000 salary is gouged.
Let them strike, let them make compromises, and then we can all go back to thinking we are financially superior to everyone else.
…,
We all pay taxes. And your other factors are CHOICES! People should pay for anyone elses’ CHOICES.
Hey Johnny, is your real name ‘Eddy’?
Ha!
The idea that the admin might stay up late trolling the union’s website is amusing, but probably far-fetched.
However, the idea that a public relations department related to UNB might have paid employees posting carefully crafted comments across strategic internet sites, in order to sway public opinion, isn’t quite so far-fetched.