Bargaining Team Report April 9, 2024
Prioritizing Unit 3 positions, equity support and accommodations, and protections from technology changes
The morning began with an email from the Employer responding to our questions about the process for bargaining this week. The Employer’s position was that they would await a pass from us before joining us at the table. Since they provided us with an April 8 comprehensive package, and with a plan for a next set of priority items, the Bargaining Team spent the morning preparing documents to present at 2:30p.m.
In this pass, we are concentrating on restoring Unit 3 positions, new and complimentary supports and accommodations for racialized members experiencing racial discrimination, harassment, and violence in the workplace, and bringing consistency to language on protections from technology changes for all units. In addition to making some modifications within each of those three proposal areas, we also lowered across-the-board (ATB) wages by 2%.
We then met the Employer at 2:30 pm, we presented our pass on the Unit 3 collective agreement and highlighted priority proposals for the Employer to engage with.
Dan Bradshaw, VP Internal Labour Relations and main representative for the Employer, asked CUPE 3903 to submit our proposals for the other two units. The BT then spent the rest of the afternoon finalizing comprehensive packages for all three units. As of 8:45pm, we have sent the Employer an updated version of our comprehensive packages for Units 1, 2, and 3, including a counter on the Long-Service Teaching Appointments (LSTAs) for Unit 2 and questions about their proposed Letter of Agreement on workplace accommodations. We will resume bargaining tomorrow at 10am, when we await the Employer’s responses to our full packages for all three units.
Bargaining on April 10 is scheduled for 10a.m. to 5p.m. All members are welcome. You can register for the meeting in advance using the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUudu-pqz4qGtalEVd5nV-VtuP-rXh8tQ32