On December 11, 2025, the Board and ULFA negotiating teams held their thirty-fourth bargaining session toward a new Academic Staff Collective Agreement (ASCA). At different times during this half-day session, three ULFA members attended as observers. The parties discussed a proposal package presented by the Board team in response to the proposal package presented by the ULFA team on November 14, 2025.
The Board team highlighted areas of their latest proposal package that reflect some changes since their October 24, 2025 proposal, which include:
- Article 9 (grievance)
- Article 11 (rights & responsibilities)
- Article 19 (supervision & discipline)
- Schedule A (salaries)
- Schedule B (benefits)
The Associate VP Human Resources joined the session for discussion of the Board team’s Schedule B proposal. This discussion largely focused on the Board team’s proposal to introduce step therapy as one of the strategies to manage the cost of the drug plan for ULFA members. Step therapy involves the requirement to first try lower-cost medications before more expensive ones for a particular medical condition. Most of the discussion related to the impact of incorporating step therapy on members’ access to medication and whether Alberta Blue Cross may be able to provide information to help alleviate such member concerns. The responses suggested that such information would likely be difficult to obtain.
The last discussion item was the Board team’s presentation on information about their preferred institutional comparators, which they used to frame their Schedule A compensation proposal.
The ULFA team used December 12, originally scheduled for bargaining, in caucus to review the Board team’s latest proposal package and to plan next steps. The parties are exploring the possibility of holding another bargaining session before the upcoming holiday break.
A summary of the progress of items opened in this round of bargaining is available here.
