November 12 Bargaining Update

Bargaining Update – November 12, 2021

Dear Faculty,

 

It was a pleasure to meet last night with over 1,500 members at our Provincewide Bargaining Update.  It was our first chance to provide an update and talk with members after several weeks of mediation and bargaining and we welcomed the chance to field member questions.

 

The meeting occurred following the mutually-agreed scheduled ending of a communications blackout during this week’s negotiations between the teams.  The faculty bargaining team has also proposed three additional dates for negotiations next week, and we hope to build upon the momentum of this week, which saw both teams table new offers. The team has yet to meet with or hear from the Ministry of Labour-appointed conciliator requested by the CEC team, and has not received a request from the conciliator to continue a blackout.

 

Attached, please find our latest offer of settlement Union Offer of Settlement 8 November 2021, on behalf of faculty.  It represents many significant compromises from the last offer that we made available to you.  While these compromises were very difficult for us to arrive at, they represented our best effort to achieve a settlement at the table, without abandoning the priorities that faculty tasked us with negotiating.  These priorities include workload (including work associated with online teaching), Partial-Load, Equity and Indigenization, and the Counsellor class definition.  While Bill 124 has limited our ability to negotiate salary and benefits, both parties’ offers currently have language that would see our compensation negotiations reopened in the event that Bill 124 is overturned or replaced.

 

Despite any compromises, however, we believe that this offer maintains our principles, enhances stability in the college system, and provides a balance between modest short-term changes that faculty need immediately in workload, coupled with proposals that would create bipartisan structures for researching and effecting long-term structural changes needed in the system: to workload; to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity; and to Indigenization, Decolonization, and Truth & Reconciliation.

 

In short, the faculty proposal maintains that some immediate changes are needed, and longer-term changes will require careful consideration and research.  It also maintains that this round of bargaining is an appropriate place to establish a strong framework for that future work, to ensure that it actually produces concrete results.

 

We have also attached a summary chart CEC Claims Fact or Fiction challenging some of the claims made by the CEC team in regard to our proposals.  We hope you find it helpful, and will keep you updated on any developments. If you haven’t already, make sure that your Local has your non-college contact information to ensure you are able to receive those updates.

 

In the meantime, here’s how you can show your support:

• Download your very own CAAT-A Zoom background
• Add union content to your photo on your College’s LMS
• Subscribe to your Local’s and CAAT-A’s Social Media
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/OntarioCollegeFaculty
• IG: @CAATAbargaining
• Twitter @CAATfaculty
• Actively involve yourself in your employer’s social media campaigns, using their hashtags and introducing bargaining issues (e.g., #CentennialFam, #ExperienceGeorgian, #LaCitéEnsemble)

 

In solidarity,
JP, Jonathan, Katie, Michelle, Ravi, Rebecca, Shawn