RESULTS OF RATIFICATION VOTE 96% IN FAVOUR

TENATIVE TWO (2) YEAR AGREEMENT REACHED

STRIKE VOTES COUNTED 85% IN FAVOUR

Academic staff at Carleton University voted overwhelmingly to reject management proposals. In a strike vote held on October 1 to 3, participating academic staff voted 85% in favour with 15% opposed (299 yes, 52 no). The approximately 351 academic staff on campus (148 are on research leave, long term disability, or are absent without pay) voted to give the Carleton University Academic Staff Association a strike mandate in its negotiations with management.

Council Votes Endorsement of Bargaining Team

Report on Negotiations

The bargaining teams met on Wednesday, October 10. The CUASA negotiating team was presented with a new proposal from management. It is basically the items as identified at conciliation (*see below) with an increased scale component.

Management's proposal is two pronged: either a one year contract with a 2% scale increase or a two year contract with a 2.2% scale increase in the first year and 2.5% in the second.

The teams have agreed to continue negotiations in order to try to achieve a settlement and CUASA will be making a counter-proposal as soon as possible. After months of very little movement at the table, CUASA is encouraged by management's offer. It moves us in the right direction. We feel that the strong strike mandate from CUASA members has been very positive in this process.

We seem to be heading for a settlement. But we're not there yet and only continued membership support will get us there.

*Management's proposals at conciliation

• increase the sessional limit for September 1, 2003 to April 30, 2006 by 50%
• Professional Expense Reimbursement increased to $800
• minimum salary for Non-Credit Language Teachers to be equal in dollar terms to the floor of the Lecturer (Instructor) I rank as increased by scale with 10 steps valued at 3% of that minimum
• provision that the parties may modify or eliminate retiree benefits
• provision to increase the years of service required to qualify for retiree benefits to 15 from 5
• cap the amount of money the employer pays for retiree benefits at current amount and allow retirees to opt out of the benefits
• all items as agreed to during bargaining as at July 5, 2001 (for more information on the exact text of agreed items see Bargaining Updates - Special Bulletin, Sept.13)

Mediation Agreement

The parties agree that, if we are unable to reach an agreement on all outstanding issues before then, we will meet with the assistance of a mediator from the Ministry of Labour on Wednesday, October 17, 2001.

The parties further agree that neither party will declare a strike or lockout prior to 12:01 a.m. on October 18, 2001.

Why aren't we settling the contract through binding arbitration?

• current bargaining is for a one year 2001-02 contract retroactive to$ May 1, 2001
• binding arbitration is only available to settle disputes on monetary items after all non-monetary issues have been resolved
• management has a non-monetary issue on the table: altering the sessional cap for 2003-2006
• CUASA and management will be bargaining the next contract in less than 4 months
• if management removed the sessional cap issue from the bargaining table for$ 4 months, the strike/lockout option would disappear and we could concentrate on$ our first priority - education