The Board and ULFA negotiating teams held their twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth sessions toward a new Academic Staff Collective Agreement (ASCA) on June 24 and 25, 2025. At different times over the two sessions, a total of five ULFA members attended as observers.
The June 24 session began with a brief discussion of recently exchanged lists of proposed bargaining dates for the Fall term. As there was only one date in common across the two lists, the teams agreed to have another look for possibilities.
The Board team then tabled a new Article 39 and revised Schedule WW as a response to the Teaching Professoriate proposal presented by the ULFA team on March 19, 2025. The Board team noted that their proposal aimed to build on broad areas of agreement that the new Teaching Professoriate and existing research-intensive streams should be aligned as much as possible on an equal footing and that, after the new category is established, no switching should occur between categories other than by applying for new positions. Article 39 defines the new category and ranks and describes processes for appointment; assignment of duties; evaluation; and extension of probation, tenure, and promotion (STP). Schedule WW outlines a process for Instructors to transition to the Teaching Professoriate if eligible and if they so choose.
Discussion of the Board team’s Teaching Professoriate proposal touched on several issues, including retention of salary caps; lack of study leave; optional decanal assignment of exceptional duties for the new category; the desire to avoid disadvantaging current employees during the process of introducing the new category; the distinction between a ‘transition’ to Assistant Teaching Professor and application for ‘promotion’ to Associate Teaching Professor or Teaching Professor; and whether duties such as lab coordination count as ‘teaching’ or ‘other’ duties (the Board team asserted they view them to be the former).
The first half of the June 24 session concluded with a brief discussion of two questions posed by the ULFA team on aspects of the Board team’s Schedule B proposal of July 24, 2024. The first asked whether “full load” and “full time” are understood to have different meanings in the ASCA, and the second sought clarification of the specific issue being addressed by the proposed addition of application deadlines to the tuition benefit provisions in B.08 and B.09.
In the second half of the June 24 session, the ULFA team presented response proposals for Articles 1 (objectives of the ASCA), 5 (recognition), 29 (STP appeals), 32 (leaves), and Schedule G (maternity/parental leave benefit examples). The parties briefly discussed some of the proposed modified language in Article 32 regarding reasonable timelines for members to provide medical certificates when required or requested.
The Board team initiated further discussion of what a concluded bargaining deal might look like. The ULFA team noted that reaching agreement on a new contract will require both parties to exchange proposals for all of the open items, including Schedule A, and that the employer’s continued reticence to tabling a monetary proposal remains an obstacle to making more substantial progress on both parties’ key mandate objectives having significant cost implications.
The June 25 half-day session began with a Schedule B proposal presented by the ULFA team. This proposal incorporated the March 2025 Joint Benefits Committee recommendations to the bargaining parties and addressed aspects of the Board team’s Schedule B proposal, tabled on July 24, 2024. It also included enhancements to the ULFA benefits plan (add vaccine coverage and improved hearing aid benefit) that the Board team’s April 25, 2025, response to the ULFA team’s July 31, 2024, data disclosure request indicated would require no increase to the monthly benefits contribution amounts. On request of the Board team, the ULFA team followed up with some historical data, which shows the current level of Board maximum contributions towards the ULFA benefits plan has been unchanged since 2016 and is lower than in 2007.
The Board team followed with a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ response proposal for Article 13 (performance evaluation criteria) as well as an Article 21 (assignment of duties) response proposal. The Board team also retabled their May 5, 2025, proposal for Article 11 (rights and responsibilities), reiterating their view that it is appropriate to incorporate the Tri-Agency framework for the responsible conduct of research into the ASCA, making it applicable to both funded and unfunded ULFA members. The last discussion item involved questions posed by the Board team regarding salary calculations for members on reduced load based on the ULFA team’s Article 33 (gradual retirement and reduced load) proposal of May 26, 2025.
After a brief discussion of additional possible bargaining dates, the parties tentatively agreed to the following Fall 2025 term dates: September 3, 4; October 2, 3, 23, 24; November 12, 14; and December 11, 12. A summary of the progress of items opened in this round of bargaining is available here.
