Our current Collective Agreement will expire at the end of August of this year. In preparation for the next round of negotiation, the Bargaining Team is asking for directions.
Demand Setting ProcessTo gather member responses, each college union local has a meeting where any member can move almost any change to the contract. A member can propose changes to basics such as workload, salary, benefits, and working conditions; more limited items such as moving allowance or grievance rights; or areas not yet covered in the contract.
Members at the local meeting vote on the proposals brought forward by their colleagues. Demands that receive majority support are forwarded to the provincial demand setting meeting.
This is your chance to have input into the upcoming round of negotiations. What, as members of local 653, would you like to see as our demands? To this end, you are cordially invited to our Demands – Setting meeting that will take place on February 15, 2012. Time will be from 1:30 – 2:30 pm at our respective campuses, by video.
In Porcupine, it will be in room D116; in Haileybury, it will be the Boardroom, and in Kirkland Lake, it will be in their Boardroom #2. Check with your campus stewards for the exact boardroom.
The Provincial Demand-set Meeting
After all locals have held their demand setting meetings, the provincial meeting takes place. At the provincial meeting, delegates from every college can propose only demands that passed at a local meeting; no new demands are permitted. Provincial delegates vote on proposals that are properly moved and seconded. Only those demands receiving majority support at the provincial meeting can be included in the union’s demands in negotiations. Neither the union centrally nor the bargaining team is permitted to introduce demands of their own.
The role of the bargaining team
The role and responsibility of the bargaining team – the seven faculty members elected by their colleagues – is to advance the demands they have been given and try to achieve them. While not all demands will be successfully met in the course of bargaining, the team works to ensure identified priorities are addressed.
Ratification vote
The final say belongs to the members; just as they began the bargaining process, they also end it. A contract becomes final only when members have voted to accept it.