Article adapted with permission from: “George Brown and Other Ontario Colleges Need to Start Investing in Education” by Jeff Brown, OPSEU Local 556, George Brown College
We’re hearing a familiar refrain from the Colleges and CEC in this round of bargaining: faculty demands—particularly those revolving around workload—are too costly. The College system, so runs this take, is experiencing a period of instability, and just can’t afford to make the changes needed to ensure that faculty work is equitably and fairly compensated. This is an old scare tactic that we know to be based on a false characterization. The College system had a surplus of almost a billion dollars last year alone, with accumulated cash on hand of $2.7 billion. Yes, there are always uncertainties and disruptions in play, but to argue that currently uncompensated labour must continue to go uncompensated because it would cost the system too much is shameful. Such an argument is morally bankrupt, but when it comes to actual money, the colleges do indeed have the money to invest in a better system.
Humber Polytechnic as an Example
This same dynamic plays out here at Humber. We are constantly told that money is scarce at the College. Faculty vacancies and backfills in Counsellors are not being filled. Faculty are consistently refused funding for professional development activities. In department meetings, we are told that things are tight, the College needs to clamp down on spending. The general message is that this is a period of fiscal uncertainty (post-pandemic recovery, international student disruption, etc.) and that we have to tighten our belts. Strangely, though, this belt-tightening only seems to apply to faculty and to the education side of our educational institution. There is plenty of money to spend on management and various initiatives, but for some reason no money to invest in front line education and the learning conditions of our students.
The fact is, this is about priorities: the College has money—last year, Humber had a surplus of over $34 million, with cash on hand of almost $74 million—but it has decided to prioritize swelling management ranks and glitzy big-ticket purchases over focusing on what should be the foundation of a college: learning conditions in classrooms.
Humber’s Misplaced Priorities
Over two-thirds of faculty at our College (about 70%) are precariously employed, stringing together a living, semester to semester, contract to contract. But the College can afford to provide big pay bumps to middle and senior management. For example, our Senior VP Academic, Gina Antonacci, has seen a 76% salary increase* over the past 5 years. Granted, that came along with her title boost (from Associate VP Academic) in 2021.
Our current Associate VP Academic, Derek Stockley, has seen a less dramatic (but equally as appalling) increase of 41% salary increase over the past 5 years. Finally, our Humber President Ann Marie Vaughan’s salary last year was a staggering $462,730.40, and the combined wages of her and her direct reports last year was almost $3 million—for 10 people! In addition to the increase in number of senior management positions, we are seeing more “Program Manager” roles at the mid-management level—an attack on our Program Coordinators.
Most importantly, while the College can afford to boost their numbers in middle and senior management, they have failed to provide a wage to faculty that meets inflation. The Colleges have proposed 2% annual increases for the next 4 years, while the inflation rate in the last 5 years averages 3.3%. Cost of living is no joke, especially for Humber faculty who large in part live in the Greater Toronto Area. How can the College explain their proposal for defacto annual wage cuts?
The Bigger Picture and Bargaining
The point isn’t to vilify any of the individuals in administrative roles or to make you angry with your manager. Rather, the point is that there is clearly a systemic problem here. Regardless of the College’s stated ‘visions’ or ‘strategies’, they have not been directing their resources to best support faculty and the student learning experience. A failure to invest in faculty is a failure to support students.
This brings us back to bargaining and the bigger picture form a sector-wide perspective. Faculty awareness of what is happening at the ground level is what informs our demands. These demands are also backed by the Workload Taskforce Report. Don’t be gaslighted into thinking that faculty demands for an improved college system are unreasonable and would cause a fiscal collapse. We see it sector-wide and we see it at our institution: the money is there. This is about priorities. When it comes to prioritizing frontline education and the student learning experience, Humber has clearly lost its way.
This is why it’s essential that faculty back our demands with a strong strike mandate in the upcoming vote. Every few years we have a chance to make a difference in our working conditions and our students’ learning conditions. This is our opportunity to remind the colleges that the priority needs to be providing a sustainable, high quality educational experience for our students. An overwhelming strike mandate will send a message to the colleges and give our Bargaining Team the leverage it needs to reach a negotiated settlement that will allow all of us to focus on what we want to be doing: training Ontario’s future.
*salaries as per Ontario Sunshine List 2024