Last spring, Dr. May suggested that MUNFA and the administration attempt to agree on a comparison group against which Memorial's faculty salaries could be compared. During the summer, Dr. Simpson and MUNFA agreed that an appropriate group would be the "Comprehensive" universities in the annual Maclean's survey.
The comparison is dramatic. Attached is a graph (e-mail MUNFA office to request a copy) showing the changes over time in median salaries in constant dollar terms (i.e., in real terms, adjusting for inflation).
During the decade starting in 1976, real salaries at the other comprehensive universities remained more or less constant, but there was a major decline in the median real Memorial salary. The salary settlement in MUNFA's first Collective Agreement helped to narrow the growing disparity but the situation has worsened in the ten years since. For the latest available figures, those for 1998, in nominal dollars (i.e., current dollars not adjusted for inflation) the median salary at Memorial was $63,200 while that of the rest of the comparison group was $75,400, a difference of 19.3%.
Faculty salary comparisons are based on Statistics Canada figures; there are no equivalent figures for university librarians. However, the floor for Memorial's Librarian I rank is substantially below the floors for the other universities in the comparison group. It is probable, therefore, that the situation for Memorial's librarians is much the same as that for the faculty.
Many faculty new hires have been made above the scale (i.e., with market differentials) because it is often impossible for Memorial to hire faculty on scale. Our faculty and librarians are hired from a national pool of candidates, so that Memorial is in competition with universities from across the country for academic staff. Our salary scale is simply not competitive.
Problems of salary compression, and even inversion, are rife. These terms mean that salaries of relatively new hires approach (compression), or even exceed (inversion), those of more experienced faculty members. To increase the salary floors without correcting the entire scale would seriously increase the compression and inversion problems.
Perusal of advertised positions available in recent issues of the CAUT Bulletin or in University Affairs shows that the job market is opening up. For instance, the University of Windsor (one of the comparison group universities) has just announced that it will be hiring 100 tenure-track faculty over the next three years. Memorial in all probability will find itself unable to hire junior faculty and will see more senior faculty leave for higher paying positions elsewhere. If this province is to maintain a university equal in quality to those in the rest of Canada, the salary scale at Memorial will have to rise substantially.
In addition, we note that the faculty salary scale at Memorial has not changed since 1989. An adjustment is long overdue.
The Negotiating Committee will soon be sending a salary proposal to the MUNFA Executive. When it is approved by the Executive, it will be discussed at a Membership Information Meeting before being presented to the administration at the bargaining table.
MUNFA Negotiating Committee: