March 2007

The Work has begun...

The preliminary ‘jockeying’ with regard to negotiating procedures and protocols is now behind us. We have presented to the University all of our non-financial Articles; the Association has received some University positions; we have presented counter-proposals to several of these. The work has been time consuming and progress has been limited.

Since the end of June, both sides have been meeting regularly. Articles currently being negotiated include Management Rights, Court Leave, Political Leave, Association Dues, Copies of the Agreement, Joint Administration of the Collective Agreement, Health & Safety, and Grievance and Arbitration. Of the items under negotiations, several (such as remittance of Association Dues) should be non-contentious. Som eof these items may seem innocuous, but nevertheless they are cornerstornes of successful labour-management relations. Reaching agreement is proving to be difficult, even on certain technical issues and definitions which we had expected to be straightforward.

As a union, we are obliged to represent our members in (for example) the Grievance and Arbitration process. We are explaining clearly to the administration our responsibility for protection of the Collective Agreement, that is, the need to ensure that the employer will ahere to the Agreement’s terms.

The negotiating process is very lengthy, but we remain within an appropriate time frame, given the history of first contract negotiations at other Ontario universities. We hope that the pace will pick up. There will be many long and intense negotiating sessions this summer. We intend to keep you informed with status reports.