On Wednesday, May 5, the Bargaining Team met with the co-conciliators Hanane Benzidane and Greg Long. We would like to thank members in the room for attending as observers, as per our open bargaining practice.
The Employer presented two counters to the Union’s Unit 3 proposals from April 27. The Union responded to one of the these counters during the meeting on May 5. Members can see the Union’s latest proposal package which includes the Employer’s Unit 3 counters, as well as the Union’s proposals here.
Shared oversight of the Graduate Assistant Training Fund (GATF)
In 2018, Arbitrator Hayes awarded Unit 3 an $80,000 fund to incentivize the hiring of GAs by giving Principal Investigators (PIs) $2000 per GA hired. Currently, the Employer has sole oversight of GATF, which has resulted in the misappropriation of at least $74,000 when these funds were granted to faculty who did not hire GAs.
To ensure that GATF monies are accountably managed, the BT requested that the Employer present the Union their allocation process for the fund, so that the discussions around the proposal could be more productive. Our counter also asks that the Employer’s process would have to be agreed to by the Union before implementation. Most importantly, our counter removes the Employer’s proposed language designed to restrict the definition of a Unit 3 member, contravening both the scope clause of the Unit 3 Collective Agreement and more than a decade of past practice. Unit 3 positions are not dependent on the GATF. This fund only exists to incentivize the hiring of GAs.
In their counter, the Employer proposed allocating $120,000 from the Unit 3 GA Bursary Fund into the GATF, which is $40,000 less than the Union’s proposed amount of $160,000. The amount proposed by the Union makes sure GA Bursary Fund is still healthy while shifting resources into the GATF. Given that we are proposing to shift monies from one Unit 3 fund to another in order to better support Unit 3 members, we don’t think our proposed amounts should be reduced.
Misclassification of Graduate Assistants (GA) as non-unionized Research Assistants (RA)
The Employer’s counter does not adequately address the misclassification of GAs as non-unionized RAs. The Employer continues to violate our collective agreement by posting bargaining unit work as non-unionized RAships. We urge the Employer to present us with a counter that addresses this ongoing issue .
Returning the benefits surcharge to pre-2016 levels for Unit 3 contracts
We did not receive a counter to our April 27 proposal benefits surcharge on May 5. To reduce barriers for the hiring of a GA, a PI should only cover 15% of the standard benefit rate associated with the hiring of an employee into a Unit 3 position. The Employer should cover the remaining 85% of the cost, which was the practice until 2016. Currently, PIs pay a four-fold increase of the cost of Unit 3 contracts compared to 2016 levels.
Since 2016, the Employer has been on a ruthless union busting campaign targeting Unit 3, that has resulted in the loss of over 800 Unit 3 jobs. The prolonged and aggressive campaign of union-busting concerns every member of CUPE 3903.
Next Meetings
Members are encouraged to join us for our upcoming bargaining meetings with the Employer. Dates and exact times of all meetings can be found on our calendar here. Please register in advance. After your registration is approved, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to join the meeting.
Members can also get in touch with the Bargaining Team for questions and comments.