RRC Faculty Association News

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Fellow Instructors: One of the problems we have belonging to MGEU (in my opinion) is the bargaining proposal process. Here are the problems as I see them: 1. Proposals must include the name of the person making the proposal. In my opinion, we should be able to make proposals anonymously. 2. Proposals are voted on in public. In my opinion, members should be able to vote anonymously for or against submitted proposals. 2. The window for submitting proposals is very short. In my opinion, members should be encouraged to submit proposals from the day a contract is signed until the next bargaining season begins. 3. Members are only allowed to see the bargaining proposals if they attend one or more bargaining proposal meetings that are often held at a time when members cannot attend. For example, the first of only two meetings held to vote on submitted proposals was scheduled to be held on 21 October 2024 from 5 until 7PM. Personally, I had a class from 4 until 6PM and only arrived at the meet...

Fellow Instructors: I have been a member of the RRCFA since it was founded in 2016. I know the founding president, Teresa Menzies and still keep in touch with her. I have verified what I am about to write in the following two paragraphs with her. It was members of the executive council of the RRCFA that submitted a bargaining proposal two contract negotiations ago asking for the College to publish a report containing a list of all Instructors sorted by department name with the number of contact hours each one had been scheduled to teach for each academic year. The proposal did NOT ask for instructors names to be show on the list. Each instructor was to be given a random number in their department so that nobody would know exactly which instructor had exactly which contact hours. The reason for this request was to put pressure on chairs to make sure that the workload of each instructor in their department was as fair as possible AND to put pressure on upper management to make sure that ...

 

We did it! We passed a motion at our Annual General Meeting to create a union and we’ve since made an application for union status at the Manitoba Labour Board (MLB). Furthermore, we met with the MGEU leadership and they have agreed to assist and support us in the process of becoming our own bargaining unit within MGEU. The   RRCFA   sees this as a positive step for the faculty and are encouraged by the support and reciprocated our willingness to work with them in this process. We will continue to recruit and gather our strength in numbers regardless of the outcome while we forge our path forward. Next step: we need as many Instructors as possible to join the   RRCFA   with their   personal email addresses  so we can keep them informed.   Here’s how you can help: 1. Forward this email to the  personal email address  of other Instructors before the current term is over. We need you to keep recruiting others. Talk to EVERYONE about this im...

The instructors at Red River College have always believed the structure of our Union limits our power at the negotiating table.  This is not an intentional failing.  It is a result of the College moving to Board Governance and growing to a large organization.  Local 73 is one of the ten largest locals at the MGEU.  The Local is comprised of nearly equal numbers of Professional, Administrative and Support Staff (PASS) and Instructors.  Management uses those numbers to their advantage at bargaining knowing that the membership is equally divided.  PASS will not go on strike or use their union strength to advance issues that pertain only to Instructors and Instructors will not withhold their labour to advance gains at the bargaining table for PASS.  Management knows this and uses it.   Instructors have been asking to restructure the bargaining unit since the early 2000s.  The issue has never gone away.  On April 21, 2008, Peter Olf...