Negotiations to establish an Essential Services Agreement resumed Tuesday 18 June. The Board’s team (Chris Hosgood, Scott Harling, Carolin Cattoi-Demkiw) presented to ULFA’s team (Kelly Williams-Witt, Aaron Chubb, Rob Sutherland) its response to ULFA’s 13 February ESA proposal. There is good progress on key points; only a couple of issues remain unresolved. We are optimistic that an agreement will be in place in a timely manner.

In a strong expression of support for its executive and bargaining team, the membership of the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association voted to ratify the 2018-2020 Collective Agreement between the Association and Board of Governors.

The electronic ballot opened with a special general meeting on June 11 and closed at midnight on June 18. 249 members, or approximately 55% of the Association Membership, participated in the election. 223 ballots (90.8%) were cast in favour of the executive’s motion to approve the agreement. 23 ballots (9.2%) opposed. Since the Board of Governors voted to approve the agreement on June 14, this vote of support in the executive by the ULFA membership means that the Agreement is now ratified.

“This was a difficult negotiation and a tough settlement for our members,” Chief Spokesperson Daniel Paul O’Donnell said. “While we made important gains in job security and conditions of employment, the lack of across the board financial increases will affect our competitiveness as an institution for years to come.”

“We are grateful for this vote of support,” he added. “This demonstration of solidarity can only help us as we prepare almost immediately for the next round of negotiations.”

ULFA President Jon Doan congratulated Association volunteers on the conclusion of the ratification. “I would like to extend another thanks to the thorough and thoughtful members of our bargaining team and our bargaining resource committee,” Doan said. “We will update our communication blog in the next couple of days with information on what this ratification means for Member salary and benefits  starting July 1 2019.”

Final copy will be posted to the University website after a technical review.

On Friday afternoon, Vice President (FInance and Administration) Nancy Walker informed the ULFA executive that the Board of Governors has voted to ratify the proposed ULFA/University of Lethbridge 2018-2020 collective agreement.

ULFA are currently voting electronically on ratification of this same agreement. The ballot closes June 18. All current members of ULFA should have received an invitation to vote. Please contact Aaron Chubb (aaron.chubb@uleth.ca) if you have not received a notification of the ballot.

You can read more about the details of the proposed agreement here. A marked up draft showing the proposed changes is available here. An unofficial HTML version of the final version of the proposed agreement is available here.