After the initial bargaining session on October 30th, the CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team met with the Employer on November 16th. In response to the Bargaining Team stating it could not ask its membership to agree to proposals without specifics, the Employer requested the November 16th meeting to present the Bargaining Team with unit-specific proposals to “roll over” the existing Collective Agreements for 3 years (until August 31, 2023) with minor changes. The proposals have a deadline of December 16th. Members can see the Employer’s framework of proposals here.
An automatic extension (i.e. a roll-over) is a practice in contract negotiations where the parties agree to continue the Collective Agreements unchanged for a set amount of time. Since many of our funds and programs expire at the end of each Collective Agreement, the Bargaining Team had previously indicated to the Employer that an automatic extension would not be viable, because those items (dated items) that expire would need to be renegotiated. The Employer responded with this framework, which is not an extension in the legal sense but would limit the scope of what can be bargained this round, if the Union agreed.
Highlights:
- In response to the Bargaining Team’s concerns about dated items, the Employer’s offers suggest there is “possibility of a discussion” on these items. The BT raised that the Employer’s list of dated items was not complete; the Employer clarified that their intention was to cover the entirety of dated items.
- The discussion of salary rates and other financial compensation items will be discussed within the framework of the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act (Bill 124).
- The only proposal that addresses equity very broadly is the suggestion to replace the pronoun “she” used throughout the Collective Agreements with the pronoun “they.”
- Specifically for Unit 2, the Employer proposes that there shall be a joint committee established to discuss a future job security program to replace two of the current job security programs (LSTAs and SRCs), as opposed to discussing job security during bargaining. That committee would be expected to complete its work by Sept. 1, 2022 at the latest. There is no mention of the Conversion program. The Employer argued that their intention is to create “more sustainable” programs that are “need-driven” (i.e. that are based on needs as defined by departments and programs).
The Bargaining Team is meeting again on November 23rd from 2-5pm (click here for Zoom link to attend meeting) to continue discussing bargaining strategy and to evaluate the Employer’s proposed framework. Members are welcome and encouraged to attend the meeting.
For more information, click on the Bargaining tab here.
The Bargaining Team can be reached at 3903bargaining@gmail.com