On December 19, 2024 the Board and ULFA negotiating teams held their seventeenth bargaining session toward a new Academic Staff Collective Agreement (ASCA). The session began with renewed discussion of an Article 4 issue regarding the role and scope of activities of inactive ULFA members who serve as appointed representatives of academic staff on the Board of Governors. This discussion touched on the Alberta government’s guidelines for board governance at provincial post-secondary institutions.
The ULFA team responded to Board proposals for two schedules and two articles. Regarding the Board proposal to delete Schedule T (Extension of Maximum Probationary Period), the ULFA team noted the terms of this MOU do not expire until September 15, 2026, which suggests it should remain in the ASCA until expiry. The team proposed that Schedule O (Written Notice During Pandemic) can now be deleted, as language it contains that remains relevant was moved to Article 6, which was provisionally agreed by the parties on October 17, 2024.
The ULFA team also presented proposals for Article 23 (Evaluation Procedures) and Article 24 (Increments for Members), noting that preparation of these proposals was strongly guided by ULFA member input gathered through bargaining town halls and a recent membership survey. The team acknowledged that these proposals are very similar to its proposals tabled on July 24, 2024, but reflect the strong preference of the majority of survey respondents and town hall attendees to largely retain the current evaluation and increment system along the lines presented in the ULFA team’s initial proposals.
The Board team presented four proposals. Proposal 37 comprises the Board’s Article 4 (Applications and Exclusions) proposal tabled November 1, 2024; ULFA’s Article 10 (Appointments), Article 18 (Intellectual Property), and Article 20 (Termination) proposals tabled November 26, 2024; and the Board’s Article 38 (Sessional Lecturers) proposal tabled December 19, 2024. Proposal 38, comprises a retabling of its October 17 proposals for Articles 8 (Delegation), 12 (EDI), and 33 (Gradual Retirement & Reduced Load). Proposal 39 proposes to delete the stay of procedure clause 1.02.3 from Article 1 (Purpose & Objectives), and proposal 40 amends the Board’s Article 9 (Grievance and Interpretation) proposal of July 24, 2024 to include a new stay of procedure provision, 9.04.
At the end of the session, neither team had further proposals ready to present the following day. The teams agreed that the best use of time for December 20, originally scheduled for bargaining, would be most productively spent by both teams working independently. The next bargaining dates are scheduled for January 20, 22, 29, and 31, 2025.
You can review the proposals presented by the ULFA team here, and the proposals presented by the Board team here. A summary of the progress of articles opened in this round of bargaining is available here.
