Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC

The Select Standing Committee on Education, which is holding public hearings on the issue of adult literacy, including specific strategies to improve outcomes for aboriginal and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) adults, heard that "band-aid" measures are not the way to improve literacy and ESL programs.

Post-secondary educators urge system-wide funding to fix problems created by years of neglect

The Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC (FPSE) is pleased to announce the appointment of Maureen Shaw to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Labour and Business Centre (CLBC). Currently, Ms. Shaw is the President of the National Union of the Canadian Association of University Teachers and Vice-President of the Kwantlen Faculty Association (FPSE Local 5).

The CLBC was established in 1984 and has become Canada's longest-standing centre for business-labour dialogue and consensus building.

Bargaining, funding and outreach are critical issues in Convention debate

Delegates at the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators' 2006 Convention unanimously endorsed a proposed Action Plan that will ready the organization for 2007 common table bargaining while continuing to pressure governments to better fund the public post-secondary education system. Delegates also endorsed a proposal to build stronger working links with progressive international outreach initiatives designed to protect rights and standards in developing countries.

FPSE is co-sponsoring the COCAL VII conference set to take place August 10-13, 2006 at Simon Fraser University's Harbour Centre campus in the heart of downtown Vancouver. This is the seventh biennial North American conference on contingent academic labour issues. The conference is co-sponsored by FPSE, UBCFCA, TSSU, CUPE and CAUT.

The theme of the three day conference is "The Next Five Years: Casualization & globalization of labour, academic freedom, and organizing strategies - from the local to the global".

Post-9/11 travel to the United States faces tighter rules as US policy shifts to require a visa for many forms of travel to or through US territory. Academics attending conferences, workshops or academic meetings are required to comply with new travel policies if they are traveling to or through US territory.

Post-9/11 travel to the United States faces tighter rules as US policy shifts to require a visa for many forms of travel to or through US territory.

The PC Pension Corporation has announced a series of retirement seminars for members of the College Pension Plan.

The retirement seminars are a great way to find out about your pension plan and how it works for you. The seminars are open to all plan members including plan members on long-term disability benefits. The College Pension Plan encourages plan members to bring along their spouse or partner to the seminar.

"Most of our agreements don't expire until March 2007, but we need to be doing the ground work now to get the best possible agreements for our members in 2007," said Cindy Oliver, President of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators.

"This Bargaining Conference is the first step in an on-going effort within FPSE to ensure our bargaining strategy meets the needs of our locals and our members," Oliver added.

In her 2006 budget speech Finance Minister Carol Taylor describes how the BC Liberals' fiscal choices are giving priority to education and training. The Minister states that:

"We are allocating $400 million over four years to increase training and skills development, and help more people connect with opportunities." (2006 Budget Speech, page 6)

She also adds that:

"Premier Campbell wants BC to be 'the most literate and best educated' in Canada, but his 2006 Budget falls well-short of funding those goals," said Cindy Oliver, President of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators (FPSE) which represents over 10,000 faculty and staff in BC's post-secondary education system.

"BC's public post-secondary system needs at least $200 million more in funding just to bring the system back to where it was in 2001. The budget increase in this year is only half that amount--about $105 million," said Oliver.

"When employers and unions start to sound the same alarm bell about BC's skills training deficit, smart governments would pay close attention to what we are saying," said Cindy Oliver, President of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators (FPSE).

Oliver was speaking at a BC Federation of Labour-FPSE sponsored public forum on BC's looming skills shortage and the need to improve public post-secondary education and training opportunities. The forum was held at the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) campus in Kamloops.