Bargaining update
Dear Sessional Lecturer members of PSAC Local 555,
Your bargaining team returned to the bargaining table on October 5 and 12 to continue to bargain non-monetary proposals with the University (the Employer).
Non-monetary proposals are all the bargaining proposals that don’t have a financial cost to the University. (In bargaining, we resolve non—monetary issues first before we move on to the monetary proposals).
On October 13, we received an email from the Employer advising us that the University would be applying for conciliation.
Conciliation, which brings in a third-party Conciliation Officer, is the next step in the bargaining process, once the parties have been unable to conclude a tentative agreement together.
We were surprised by the Employer’s decision because we are not at an impasse. Also, we have not yet tabled our monetary proposals so the Employer’s decision to move to conciliation is premature.
We are also very discouraged by the Employer’s behaviour towards us at the bargaining table and will be seeking a legal opinion on the Employer’s refusal to bargain issues with us, stating they will not discuss them because there are grievances filed on issues related to our proposals.
On a positive note, however, we continue to advocate for job security (including earlier notice of appointments) and less workload (workloads have been increasing dramatically), as you have asked us to. We will continue despite the challenges to stay strong and advocate for improved working conditions.
Over and over, we have made it clear to the University that job security and workload are the Union’s key priorities in our non-monetary bargaining this round.
We have also continued to hold meetings with the faculty association to discuss shared priorities and concerns. The faculty association will stand behind our demands and we ask our members to show solidarity and support to the faculty members as they also push for better working conditions.
Finally, we believe it is time to hold another membership meeting to discuss bargaining and strike mandates.
The meeting will take place on Monday October 29th at 10:00 am.
Please show your support by attending this meeting and discussing next steps in our bargaining process.
Please RRSP for this meeting to Office@PSAC555.ca
If you have any questions about bargaining please reach out to a member of your bargaining team.
In solidarity,
Your bargaining team:
Reza Alipour Moghadam Esfahani
Kadeen Briscoe
Hussien Hegab
Marie Polgar, Local 555 Resource Person
Darren Pacione, PSAC Research Officer
Verda Cook, PSAC Negotiator