Bargaining “Meet and Greet” and STP Workshops held on Calgary Campus Wednesday. Two final sessions planned.

Mar 23, 2018 | Bargaining

Members of the executive of the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association (ULFA) held two workshops on the University of Lethbridge’s Calgary Campus on Wednesday.

The workshops were led by ULFA Vice President Jon Doan, Bargaining Team members Paul Hayes and Dan O’Donnell, Executive Director Annabree Fairweather, and Professional Officer Derrick Antson.

The workshops were well attended and the Bargaining “Meet and Greet” provided an opportunity for members of the Bargaining Team to hear about issues particular to the Calgary Campus, as well as the degree to which members on the Calgary Campus are affected by issues we have discovered across our constituencies.

The Bargaining Team will be holding two more “Meet and Greet” workshops this semester in the run-up to bargaining:

• March 29, 2018 at 1:30 pm. Room PE020. Primary constituency: Arts and Science.
• April 23, 2018 at 12:00 pm. Room L1170A. Primary constituency: Instructors and Academic Assistants.

Although each session is targeted primarily towards the issues affecting a specific constituency, any member is free to attend any session. The session begins with a general discussion of the state of and issues in our current round of bargaining and then moves to discussion and questions from the floor.

Alberta Labour Relations Board rules in ULFA’s favour

Mar 15, 2018 | Bargaining

The Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB) ruled in favour of the core position taken by the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association (ULFA) yesterday in its dispute with the University of Lethbridge.

The case concerned the number of bargaining units and collective agreements to be negotiated between the University and ULFA under the changes to the Post Secondary Learning Act (PSLA) and Labour Relations Code introduced by Bill 7 (You can read more about the history of this case working backwards from this post).

The specific issue before the ALRB was the legal question:

Does the Code allow for or preclude the possibility of more than one bargaining unit for the academic staff and/or more than one collective agreement for the academic staff? (¶ 2)

In its submission, the University administration argued that

• The PSLA left the number of agreements up to the parties to determine;
• The University and ULFA historically had negotiated two distinct agreements (i.e. the Sessional Lecturers’ Handbook and the Faculty Handbook);
• The Labour Relations Code required the continuation of these two agreements as distinct collective agreements. (see ¶ 3)

ULFA, for its part, disagreed with the University’s characterisation of the historical situation, particularly the degree to which the two Handbooks represented completely distinct agreements. With regard to the legal question at issue, it argued

• That the Code established the Faculty Association as the exclusive bargaining agent for a single Bargaining Unit (i.e. the “Academic Staff”) consisting of both Sessional Lecturers and Faculty;
• That the Code precluded the possibility of more than one bargaining unit for the Academic Staff under the current legislative arrangements;
• That the Code precludes the possibility of there being more than one collective agreement to cover this single bargaining unit under the current legislative arrangements. (see ¶ 4)

In its decision, the ALRB upheld the core elements of ULFA’s position, concluding that there was both one bargaining unit under the Code and that the Code precludes the negotiation of more than one collective agreement for that unit:

[T]he PSLA and the Code create a single designated bargaining unit (all academic staff); however, parties may negotiate two or more collective agreements which may contain scope clauses that individually do not comprise all of the designated bargaining unit. The Code precludes more than one collective agreement being negotiated where one of the parties maintains the position that a single collective agreement shall be negotiated for all employees in the designated bargaining unit. Appropriate notice of this position must occur at the commencement of collective bargaining. (¶ 6)

The main place in which the ALRB diverged from the position taken by ULFA and the intervenors concerned the idea that the parties could negotiate more than one collective agreement for a given Bargaining Unit, provided they both agree explicitly to do so. This has potentially profound implications for labour relations in the province. Since ULFA has already indicated that it “maintains the position that a single collective agreement shall be negotiated for all employees in the designated bargaining unit,” however, the question is moot for the purposes of our current negotiations: the ALRB’s decision means that the Sessional and Faculty Handbooks represent a single collective agreement under the Code.

Workload, PAR process, and health benefits among top topics for Members at negotiating “Meet and Greets”

Mar 12, 2018 | Bargaining

The University of Lethbridge Faculty Association (ULFA) bargaining team has held six of the scheduled ten “Meet and Greet” sessions with academic staff Members from different units on campus. (You can see the schedule for the remaining sessions here. All Members are welcome at all sessions: you do not need to be a member of the targeted group to attend any session).

The sessions begin with a short talk from the bargaining team describing the context of this year’s bargaining, some of the issues involved, and the question of Lockout/Strike. The floor is then opened to questions and discussion. Since the Bargaining team is interested in hearing from Members, the questions go both ways: Members ask the bargaining team questions, and the bargaining team asks the Members.

Sessions have been generally well attended and discussion has tended to go beyond the hour scheduled for the meeting. Among the top issues raised by Members are

• Accounting for workload differences among different ranks and groups;
• The PAR process (weighting, appeal, expectations);
• Health benefits;
• Salary issues;
• Designation issues (designation refers to the question of who and what types of work are represented by ULFA);
• Communication;
• Essential Services.

The bargaining team has used these sessions to give a broad outline of our strategy and expectations for this round of negotiations.

We have benefited immensely from the contributions of Members in these discussions. We have learned of the broad variety of workload issues on campus, discovered a number of people who carry out what are arguably essential services as part of their self-assigned duties, and heard real issues people have had in accessing health benefits, among many other topics.

In some cases, these discussions will play directly into our negotiations for this year. In other cases, they point to issues we will need to address in future rounds of negotiations. We thank the participants thus far for their ideas and look forward to meeting with other Members at upcoming events.

Board proposes negotiating nearly all articles in “Faculty Handbook”

Mar 11, 2018 | Bargaining

In a letter dated March 6, 2018, the Board of Governors of the University of Lethbridge issued ULFA with a Notice to Bargain the Faculty Handbook. This notice depends on a disputed interpretation of the Labour Relations Code that was the subject of a recent hearing before the Alberta Labour Relations Board. The two sides are currently awaiting a ruling by the Labour Board.

Opens nearly all sections of the Faculty Handbook

In their letter, the Board proposes negotiating most sections of the Faculty Agreement:

• Preamble/Objectives
• Article 1 Interpretation
• Article 2 Definitions
• Article 3 Amendments
• Article 4 Application and Exclusions
• Article 5 Recognition
• Article 6 Communication and Information
• Article 7 Annual Meeting
• Article 8 Delegation
• Article 11 Rights and Responsibilities
• Article 13 Assignment of Duties
• Article 15 Appointment of Instructors
• Article 16 Termination of Appointment
• Article 17 Personnel Committees
• Article 18 Appointment of Faculty Members
• Article 22 Grievance Procedure
• Article 23 Mediation
• Article 25 Supervision and Discipline
• Article 26 Termination of Appointment for Financial Emergency or Due to Program Redundancy
• Schedule C Negotiation and Impasse–Resolving Procedures
• Schedule H Code of Conduct of Board of Governors Faculty Representatives

As we noted in response to the Board’s notice regarding the “Sessional Lecturers Handbook” this is an unusually broad list of articles, which has the potential to fundamentally affect the conditions under which members of the Academic Staff are employed.

In a blog post commenting on our case at the ALRB, labour expert Bob Barnetson described the Board’s letter on the Sessionals Handbook as being unusually “aggressive.”

It is also the case, however, that the changes introduced by Bill 7 may require technical changes to language throughout the Handbook and both sides were expecting that it might be necessary to open a wider number of articles than would normally be the case. The precise nature of the Board’s proposed changes will become clear after the two sides meet to exchange language, sometime after the ALRB rules on our case.

Not a Notice to Bargain

As mentioned in our post on the Board’s notice to bargain the “Sessional Lecturers Handbook,” ULFA does not consider letters that refer to only one part of the Bargaining Unit or Collective Agreement to represent valid notices to bargain. ULFA had, however, already issued a bargaining notice of its own covering the entire collective agreement on Monday, March 5.

Time will tell

As we discussed previously, it is important to remember that all negotiating documents from either side, including the University’s letters of March 6 and January 22nd, are presented “without prejudice” until a final agreement is reached. This means that while the University may have proposed opening a large number of topics, that is no guarantee that all these topics will be discussed or that an agreement will be reached on all articles mentioned. It is very common for negotiating teams to alter or withdraw proposals and items for discussion in the course of bargaining. As a rule, moreover, it is easier to withdraw than add items for negotiations. This encourages teams to overestimate what they will discuss, rather than underestimate.

The ULFA negotiating team has trained for various approaches to bargaining, including comprehensive bargaining across the collective agreement. It is fully prepared to begin negotiations on the entire collective agreement either immediately or after the ALRB has ruled on our application for a ruling.