On May 20, 2025, ULFA hosted its eleventh Bargaining Town Hall in this round of negotiations toward a new Academic Staff Collective Agreement (ASCA). The ULFA negotiating team recapped progress made to date and touched on some noteworthy developments in the provincial bargaining context.
Most of the items opened one year ago by the ULFA and Board negotiating teams have yet to reach an agreement. Provisionally agreed items include minor wording changes to four Articles and the deletion of four Schedules that are no longer relevant. Schedule A (salary and stipends) remains the only item not yet tabled, despite concerns raised by the ULFA team that some key proposals in play (e.g., teaching professoriate, evaluation process, merit awards) have strong ties to compensation matters.
The ULFA negotiating team provided examples of some potential impacts of accepting the Board team’s most recent proposals for Articles 23 (evaluation procedures) and 24 (increments/merit). These proposals directly affect the ULFA bargaining mandate item concerning how the salary and evaluation systems might be made more transparent and equitable. Outcomes that distribute larger merit awards to considerably fewer members will align poorly with the overall preferences expressed in the most recent ULFA membership survey on evaluation and merit.
Other proposals and topics discussed at the bargaining sessions held since the previous Bargaining Town Halls are summarized on ULFA’s bargaining blog. The ULFA team noted some recent developments at other Alberta public-sector bargaining tables, including filing of an unfair labour practices complaint by the University of Alberta’s academic staff association (AASUA) following failed mediation; commencement of a strike authorization vote by Alberta teachers (ATA); a strong strike mandate delivered by Government of Alberta AUPE members; and an employer monetary offer made by our Board to the ULethbridge AUPE local (10% raise over 4 years), which the local views as unacceptable.
Following a brief report from the ULFA Job Action Committee on upcoming events and ways to support the ULFA negotiating team, the floor was opened for a Q&A session. Topics and issues raised included whether the Board’s merit proposal remains focused on a single performance category (teaching/research/service), request for advice on when ULFA members might need to be prepared for a strike, where interested members can sign up to be an observer at upcoming bargaining sessions, and what happens if contract negotiations extend beyond June 30, 2025.
A summary of the progress of items opened in this round of bargaining is available here. The next scheduled bargaining dates are May 26 (9 am – 12 pm), June 24 (9 am – 4 pm), and June 25 (1 pm – 4 pm), 2025.
