February 14: Preliminary meeting with Chris Albertyn

This week, the Bargaining Team met with the Employer on February 16 and 18, and had Bargaining Team meetings on February 17th and 19th. We would like to thank members in the room for attending as observers, as per our open bargaining practice.

February 17th Bargaining Team Meeting
On February 17th, we discussed the Employer’s proposals from February 16th, and prepared for our upcoming bargaining meetings on February 18th and 19th. We also had some discussion to prepare for our ongoing weekend mediation process with mediator Chris Albertyn (February 20th, 21st, 27th and 28th) which will be dedicated to discussing job security programs for Unit 2.

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At the bargaining meeting on December 17, 2020, the Employer put forward an interpretation of Bill 124 (the bill enacting the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act) that the CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team felt was concerning. Namely, the Employer argued that “compensation”, as it was defined in the Bill, included the cost of penalties within the Collective Agreement, and that any workload reduction (including caps on class sizes) were in-effect a compensation increase. The CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team at the time rejected this understanding. At the December 22 bargaining meeting, we reiterated our position and asked for a written statement from the Employer, outlining their understanding of Bill 124. CUPE 3903 received this statement on January 19, 2021.

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Join the 3903 Bargaining Team as we negotiate with York University about existing and new job security programs. The new program (proposal 36) is mutually beneficial to CUPE 3903 and York University. It will help long-serving Unit 2 members retire with dignity. A member who opts into the program laid out in our proposal 36 teaches a course load of 3.5 courses at the rate of 5.5 courses for 10 years. After 10 years, a severance of 11 courses is paid. This weekend, starting on Saturday, February 20th, Chris Albertyn will mediate to negotiate with York University.

Meeting dates and times:
Saturday, February 20th (4pm);
Sunday, February 21st (Noon)

For the registration link please click here.

Please find York University’s proposals, submitted to the 3903 Bargaining Team, during the mediation with Chris Albertyn. These proposals were submitted on February 20th.
Employer’s Proposals from February 20th

Please find below a chart prepared by the Bargaining Team tracking the developments in negotiations between 3903 and the Employer to date. It includes all our proposals and the counters received from the Employer as of February 18th.
CUPE 3903 Extension Framework Proposal Package

On Friday February 16th, the CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team met with the Employer. We would like to thank members in the room for attending as observers, as per our open bargaining practice.

The Employer stated that given CUPE 3903’s insistence on receiving concrete proposals, and optimism around the ongoing mediated sessions with mediator Chris Albertyn, they were withdrawing their extension framework and would instead bargaining regularly with concrete proposals. he CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team was then presented with a number of counter proposals, mainly addressing all-units issues. Members can see the Employer’s counter proposals, and the Union’s latest proposal package here.

The Employer’s counter proposals on all units issues:

• Equity Proposals (#49 in the CUPE 3903 Extension Framework)
  • Lists what ‘Equity Groups’ are.
  • Amends LGBTQ in the existing collective agreements to LGBTQ2.
  • Provides a definition for the Employer’s understanding of intersectionality.
  • Changes pronouns in all three collective agreements to be gender neutral.
• Tuition Costs Fund (#5 in the CUPE 3903 Extension Framework)
  • Agrees with the existing CUPE 3903 proposal.
  • CUPE 3903 must provide a report to the Employer on how the funds are distributed.
• Sexual Assault Survivor Support Fund (#7 in the CUPE 3903 Extension Framework)
  • Agreement with the CUPE 3903 proposal.
  • Asks for a report on how much funding is distributed.
• Domestic, Sexual, And/Or Gender Based Violence Leave (#38 in the CUPE 3903 Extension Framework)
  • Agrees with the union proposal to change the extend the scope of the leave to include gender-based violence, 
  • Keeps the language “their child” instead of the union’s language “anyone for whom they have care responsibilities” to cover a wide variety of care responsibilities our members are involved in.
• Grievance Procedure (#39 in the CUPE 3903 Extension Framework)
  • Employer-driven proposal to “harmonize” existing articles 4.03 and 4.04 to bring them more in line with “the University’s procedures”; effect would be to create one process around “Sexual, Gender and Gender Identity Harassment, Racial and Ethnic Harassment”
  • Employer-driven proposal to change use of information provided by complainant
  • Employer-driven proposal to adhere to their own timelines (in conflict with Union’s proposal) 
  • Employer-driven proposal to give Employer more time to respond (in conflict with Union’s proposal) 

The Employer’s Unit 1 specific counter proposals: 

• Assignment Deadlines (#17-20 in the CUPE 3903 Extension Framework)
  • Sets assignment deadlines to 4 weeks before the start of the semester.
  • Adds a time limit of five days for accepting an offer.
• Ticketed Course Directorship Proposals (#43 and #46 in the CUPE 3903 Extension Framework)
  • Increases number of ticketed CDs to 55 from 50. (Note: this may not be an actual increase due to eliminating the special mention of 5 ticketed CDs from FES).
  • Eliminates special mention of specific unlimited ticketed CDs for the Faculty of Education and FES.
  • Provides two ticketed CDs to every faculty that wants them, instead of every faculty covered under CUPE 3903 CAs
  • 50% of ticketed courses are to be prioritized (not guaranteed)  for candidates from Equity Groups, with priority given to those from two or more Equity Groups. If a qualified CD cannot be found, the course will be filled using the normal process as outlined in 10.0.1.

After caucusing, the CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team responded that we appreciated getting concrete proposals, and noted that we are expecting to see counter-proposals on remaining priorities. The Employer stated that there would be more Unit 2 and 3 proposals coming later this week, but noted their “particular difficulty” in responding to proposals around the School of Nursing issues. They also indicated that their forthcoming pass on Unit 3 will propose the continuation of the GAT fund, similar to their most recent Framework for Extension, whereas the Union continues to push for joint oversight of this fund due to the recent misappropriation of funds. 

Next Meetings
The Bargaining Team will be discussing the response to these  proposals during the February 17th Bargaining Team meeting. Members are welcome and encouraged to attend this and all meetings of the Bargaining Team. The meeting calendar and the registration information can be found here.

Please register in advance. For registration, you  will need to provide your employee number, which will be kept confidential. If you still don’t know what your employee number is, please click here for instructions.

After registering, members will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.