Bargaining set to begin this spring

As you know, AUFA’s Bargaining Team and Member Engagement Committee, together with the critical participation of all AUFA members, have been busy preparing for our upcoming round of bargaining this spring.

AUFA Member Consultations

Last December, we surveyed a representative sample of members (100) to discover members’ priorities for AUFA’s bargaining proposal. We also opened a general forum for members to contribute (anonymously) their ideas for the proposal.

The AUFA bargaining team has since poured over the data and ideas generated through these consultations, and we’ve begun to put together a rough proposal.

Final Consultations

In order to ensure that the proposal is as representative of members’ priorities as possible, and to increase the transparency of the bargaining process, we plan on presenting its basic thrust to all members for further comment and discussion. Please look for this “high level” bargaining document on 20 April.

Three days later, on 23 April, the Bargaining Team will host an open town hall for all AUFA members as part of a further effort to give the rough proposal a full airing.

No doubt all members recognize that while this rough proposal may not include everything all members would like to see, we nevertheless trust that it contains those critical elements reflective of our consultations process to satisfy as many members as possible.

Finally, on 27 April, we will hold an online member vote on the proposal.

Your support of the proposal will forestall employer charges that AUFA members do not stand firmly and resolutely behind the proposal.

Timeline to Bargaining

At the moment, we expect to meet with representatives of the employer at the table to begin the process of revising our Collective Agreement sometime in the late spring or early summer.

At the end of April, AUFA will serve the employer with its intention (notice) to bargain.

In the subsequent 30 days, AUFA representatives and representatives of the Employer must meet for the first time. On the outside, this could be as late as the end of May.

After our first meeting with the employer, both sides must exchange their final bargaining proposals within the next 15 days. On the outside, this could be sometime in the first two weeks of June.

Thereafter, bargaining begins.

All bargaining rounds represent challenges and opportunities. This current round is little different in that regard. But it is an extraordinary one nevertheless in so far as it’s coming at a time of great uncertainty due to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the employer’s not-so-subtle hints at possible layoffs, wage-rollbacks, general reorganizations, and threats to de-designate fully two-thirds of our membership out of our bargaining unit.

AUFA members have thus far met these challenges with remarkable solidarity and collective strength of purpose. We must continue to do so, now more than ever.

Eric Strikwerda

Bargaining Chair, AUFA