Selected Accomplishments

Team Terezia Won Sector-Leading Salary, Benefits, Pensions, and other Economic Gains for UTFA Members

Snapshot on Bargaining: Terezia has Achieved Major Gains for Members in UTFA’s Negotiations with the University’s Senior Administration

  • Your 2020 UTFA Negotiating Team won a sector-leading 10% across-the-board salary increase for 2020-2023. Your 2023-202X Team also secured the increase for newly hired faculty and librarians.

  • We negotiated major improvements in mental health, paramedical (e.g., massage, physiotherapy), vision, dental benefits, and the dependent scholarship program.

  • We protected retirees’ rights to equal health benefits against Administration efforts to reduce them.

  • Terezia mobilized members to pressure the Administration to restore our PTR payments in 2021, and we prevented any repeat of PTR being withheld by the Administration.

Salary, Benefits, Pensions, and other Gains for our Members

Bargaining: Led the negotiation of UTFA’s recent 2020-2023 Agreement with the University’s senior Administration

  • Won a sector-leading 10% across-the-board salary increase for 2020-2023. The arbitrated increase boosted UTFA members’ annual pay by $40M/year. Also secured the increase for 475 recent hires.

  • Negotiated major improvements in mental health, paramedical (e.g., massage, physiotherapy), vision, dental benefits, and the dependent scholarship program.

  • Protected retirees’ rights to equal health benefits against Administration efforts to reduce them.

  • Mobilized members to pressure the Administration to restore our PTR payments in 2021, and prevented any repeat of PTR being withheld by the Administration.

  • Led UTFA’s team on the negotiation of one of the strongest COVID (Letters of Understanding (LOU)s in the university sector (including, $750 CERF, protections against forced dual delivery, members’ choice on the use of Student Evaluation of Teaching [SETs]).

  • Pensions: As VP, helped to establish the new University Pension Plan (UPP) via education, outreach, and negotiation. As President, co-led the last phase of the UTFA negotiation of the supplementary account plan (SAP) for pensionable earnings above the YMPE (the year's maximum pensionable earnings as defined under the Canada Pension Plan).

  • Eliminated UTFA’s structural deficit and established accountability mechanisms for work done at UTFA while significantly increasing the levels of service offered to UTFA members.

Membership Engagement and Support

  • Established unprecedented membership outreach, engagement, and dialogue via constituency-based and all members’ meetings; town halls; expert panels; focus groups; small group discussions; and, member surveys.

  • As VP-Grievances, and as President, provided advice and counsel to hundreds of members seeking both informal and formal resolutions to workplace conflicts. Worked with UTFA Membership Chairs to provide extensive orientation to new Council members. Mentored new Executive members via ongoing weekly dedicated sessions

Equity, Anti-racism, and Justice

  • Combatted salary discrimination, including obtaining a 3.9% increase for female Librarians and 1.3% for women in the tenure stream. Won UTFA’s access to key race-based and other demographic data via a successful grievance. Am currently leading UTFA’s efforts to identify and rectify race-based and other discriminatory pay gaps.

  • Recruited more diverse and representative members to UTFA’s governing bodies—Council and Executive.

  • Conducted focus groups with equity-seeking groups of UTFA members, including Black and Indigenous faculty, and women in STEM, to identify areas of concern for UTFA to address in its equity work.

  • As VP, helped negotiate the rank of Full Professor for the Teaching Stream.

Health and Safety Terezia pioneered UTFA’s engagement with health and safety issues via a successful grievance on the Medical Sciences Building asbestos crisis.

  • Recruited an expert advisory group of internationally recognized public health scientists to work with UTFA’s leadership to advocate for safer policies and procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Effectively advocated for safer University response to COVID, including: revised University policy requiring proof of vaccination; improved legionella/water safety procedures; mask mandates; and, ventilation upgrades.

UTFA’s Standing in the University Sector

Team Terezia built strong coalitions of student, campus union, and faculty association groups both internal to UofT and external/across the GTA to promote issues of common concern. Terezia has established a respected reputation as a leading voice in the Canadian academic sector via participation working closely with the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) and the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA).

 

*Image by Loozrboy from Toronto, Canada - U of T ScarboroughUploaded by Skeezix1000, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10518781