Email template
Copy/paste the following email addresses into your email program
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Send to:
smurray@langara.ca, joeyhartman@langara.ca, wchoy@langara.ca, nicholassmith@langara.ca, mgoldberg@langara.ca, sjeon@langara.ca, cindylee@langara.ca,
dnplotnicki@langara.ca, crheaume@langara.ca, mroberts@langara.ca, tmacmillan@langara.ca, rpalozzi@langara.ca,
pburns@langara.ca, parveenmann@langara.ca, mkoke@langara.ca, yvarachia@langara.ca, mheldman@langara.ca
CC:
psfs.minister@gov.bc.ca, psfs.deputyminister@gov.bc.ca, Sunita.Dhir.MLA@leg.bc.ca,
LBR.Minister@gov.bc.ca, info@yourlfa.ca
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Use the email template below, or write your own
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[Subject line:] Fair treatment for laid-off Langara faculty: respect the LFA collective agreement!
[Send to:]
Langara’s Board of Governors
Scott Murray, Chair
Joey Hartman, Chair, Institutional Sustainability Task Force
Willa Choy, Chair, Audit and Finance Committee
Nick Smith, First Vice-Chair
Mark Goldberg, Second Vice-Chair
Sophie Song-Yi Jeon
Cindy Lee
Dawen Nozdryn-Plotnicki
Cole Rheaume
Langara’s Senior Leadership Team
Paula Burns, President
Parveen Mann, VP People and Culture
Michael Koke, VP Administration and Finance
Yusuf Varachia, VP External Relations
Marg Heldman, Interim VP Academic
cc.
Jessie Sunner, Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills
Trevor Hughes, Deputy Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills
Sunita Dhir, MLA for Vancouver-Langara
Jennifer Whiteside, Minister of Labour
LFA office
Dear Langara College leadership,
[Optional: write a brief personal statement here, giving any details you wish about the impact of the current situation. This could include:
- How long you have worked or studied at Langara, describe relationship
- Your situation vis à vis the College’s reappointment process (e.g., offered work when others with long service are not / not offered work the union believes should go to you / concerned observer / community member, etc.)
- Your observation of the impact of this process on you (or others / students / Langara in general).
I am deeply concerned that Langara has laid off long-term faculty with stable employment, and is now giving temporary work to those who often have less seniority. The Langara Faculty Association’s collective agreement specifies reappointment rights for those who have been terminated, but Langara’s administration is bypassing those rights and offering work on a short-term basis to those with less seniority instead. If there are not enough such faculty available, the work is being posted, so that laid-off faculty must apply and interview for the jobs they just lost – with no guarantee that they will be given the work.
This is blatantly unfair, and it contravenes the terms and spirit of the Langara Faculty Association’s collective agreement. It is a shift towards casualizing Langara’s workforce, a black mark on Langara’s name as an employer, and it will erode the institution from the inside. Long-term faculty fill roles as department and division chairs, curriculum developers, peer evaluators, and more. Education is stronger because of the decades of experience that educators share with our students, local communities, and society. Undermining stable employment at the College weakens relationships and collaboration across the institution, degrading both the career path and the quality of education at Langara. Short-term contracts kill careers.
Cutting terminated faculty out of their rights to reappointment is unacceptable. I urge you to immediately retract this misinterpretation, respect the terms of the LFA’s collective agreement, and treat faculty fairly. Wasting taxpayer dollars on unnecessary costly and time-consuming grievances to correct this mistake is indefensible. Langara’s quality, reputation, and future are at stake.
Sincerely,
[Your name]