Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to you because some of you have made it known to me that you are planning to relinquish, or are considering relinquishing, your support of BUFA during the strike.

First, let me say that I really appreciate the forthrightness of your disclosure about your thoughts regarding this matter. I feel that alone demonstrates a great deal of respect and consideration.

Let me, in my turn, be just as forthright with concerns and questions that I have in reaction to your statements to me.

I miss my students terribly and feel very concerned for them. I empathize with the fact that they have been basically stuck in a completely compromised position for the past month. I feel especially bad because I was away on research for nearly two weeks before we went on strike, so I haven't actually seen them for six weeks! My out of town students who have no family or jobs here are really suffering. In short, I am just as concerned about the well being of my students as your choice to return suggests that you are, particularly given that this is an opera production year, the culmination of years of work and preparation for me, for Gordon, and for our students.

But I'm not going to cross the picket line.

As much as I wish I could be teaching our students as soon as Monday, for many reasons I simply cannot and will not go contrary to the will and actions of my BUFA colleagues. It is not that I love them more than the students. I love them equally. While I know that the strike seems to have lasted an eternity for the students, and they are frustrated and disappointed, and even angry, this strike is about much more than missed classes and the delay of this semester.  I know monetarily the continuation of the strike is not worth it, individually, or collectively, but then it has never been about the money. I do not care about the extra $18 on my pay cheque every week, but I do care about the university being an environment of fairness and respect, and so should the students. This is why I have no compunction about staying in solidarity with BUFA because that is what is ultimately best for the students and ultimately what is best for society. I believe, in fact, that it is part of our calling as educators to bring the students to an understanding of the importance of standing up for collective bargaining (a position which BUSU continues to openly and firmly support in this strike), for the sake of retaining the rights that have been so hard won over the past century.

I also believe in and care deeply about a positive and academically free post secondary experience for students, faculty, teaching assistants, and professional assistants. I care about my colleagues here at BU outside the School of Music, and the relationship we have with the other departments and faculties. I care about my colleagues at other universities who stand at risk of the erosion of their rights if we do not stand together with one another here, now at BU. I care about the bigger picture that will enable the smaller picture (our relationship with our students) to remain healthy.

I firmly believe that crossing the picket line will do damage to the integrity of both the bigger and the smaller pictures.

If some of us go back to teach on Monday, and some of us do not, what does that say to the students? What does that say to colleagues at BU?  To colleagues at other universities in the province?  Across the country?  In the many universities around the world with which we are all, to varying degrees, affiliated?  What kind of position are we then putting all these people in?

In terms of students alone, there are several questions.  Would returning profs be requiring them to go to classes/lessons, or is it their choice?  What position does returning faculty take on those students who don't, in their turn, also cross the picket line?  What affect do the choices of the returning profs have on the students who choose to support the position of BUFA and the majority of the BU faculty?  And what kind of perception will the students have of a prof who crosses the line and does not stand in solidarity with their colleagues?  What affect will students' crossing the picket line have on their relationships with their peers and colleagues?  Ultimately, will crossing the line not create even more division, on all kinds of levels?

And then there's the bigger picture. In the current political climate of neo-conservative ideology, a mindset that is both, at a fundamental level, anti-union AND anti-art, the fact that the Board of Governors (in contravention of its own by-laws) chose to create an ad hoc bargaining team headed by a lawyer who is an advisor to the Canadian Labour Watch Association (a Vancouver-based anti-union organization) should raise many warning flags, if it hasn't already done so.  I cannot put it better than our music colleague at University of Saskatchewan:

I beg you to read the letters of support from current students, from BU alumni, from individual faculty members outside BU and faculty associations from universities across the country, and look at both the bigger and the smaller pictures, the long term and the short.  I especially beg you to become informed about the details of the negotiations by speaking directly with our negotiating team, Bill Paton, David Winter, Derek Brown, Elizabeth MacDonald-Murray and Joe Dolecki, our very hard-working and honest colleagues who have volunteered their time and efforts on our behalf.  From their labours we will all reap the benefits, students and faculty, today and in the future.

Yours, always respectfully and affectionately,

David.