July 11th, 2025: The Unit 1 Bargaining Committee met with the Employer’s Bargaining team for the first time on July 10th. We exchanged our non-monetary proposals with some discussion, and mutually agreed to sign off on housekeeping items such as: replacing ‘Chief” with ‘Lead’, ‘Human Resources’ to ‘Office of People & Culture’, removing gendered language, editing extra spaces and dashes (typos), updating the union’s office location, and renewing relevant Letters of Understanding. We agreed to remove some language that was out of date or no longer pertinent. Overall, there was respectful dialogue and meaningful exchange. We have three more bargaining dates in July, with two happening this week. More updates will follow.
One thing we do want to note: the Employer seems keen on expanding preference in Instructor hiring for full-time graduate students. They have proposed questionable language that would negatively impact our current Instructors, the undergraduate students they are teaching, and impose unnecessary hardship and stress on graduate students. We have rejected this language.
June 2025: The Unit 1 Bargaining Committee took a break from meeting in person in the month of May. We had been going through the Collective Agreement in its entirety to ensure that all the language is clear and that our members are protected. We will be continuing our review of the CA the week of June 23rd.
We were having some difficulties getting rooms booked for bargaining because of the scheduling for two units (Unit 1 & Unit 5), and the need for three rooms (two for caucusing and one for meeting). The employer proposed some room locations on campus that were not accessible for our team, so we could not accept them. Unfortunately, they stopped responding to our communications about this. As such, we have gone ahead and completed our own room bookings.
This month we had two days of Goals & Strategic planning with CUPE National at the Hannover office and another full day going through the Collective with the bargaining committee. In July, there will be CAT (Contract Action Team) training sessions offered to the Bargaining support Committee, Executive Committee, and mobilizers. The Union served Notice to Bargain to the Employer on June 10, 2025. Our first meeting with the employer for negotiations also begins in July, with four dates scheduled.
What is Notice to Bargain?
https://www.ontario.ca/page/collective-bargaining#beginning
Generally, to begin the negotiation process, the union or the employer must notify the other party that they would like to begin negotiations for a first collective agreement or the renewal of a collective agreement. This is known as providing notice to bargain. After a union has been certified, or if the employer has voluntarily recognized the union, the union must notify the employer in writing of its desire to start negotiating a first collective agreement. If there’s already a collective agreement between the parties, either can provide notice to bargain to the other, in writing, within 90 days before the agreement expires or during any period specified within the agreement. The union and the employer must meet within 15 days from giving notice, unless they agree to a different timeframe.
April 2025: The Bargaining Committee last met at the end of March. Since that time, we have gone through the survey data, analyzed the quantitative and qualitative data, and discussed and prepared the Priority Proposals Presentation.
The Priority Proposals presentation was rescheduled from March 26th to April 2nd due the election. The Bargaining Committee presented the Priorities Proposals at 11am and 5pm, which included survey demographics, the key priorities, and comments from members about their concerns and issues. Members who attended voted YES to accept the Priority Proposals.
The Bargaining Committee is meeting next in mid-April, and we have mapped out committee meeting dates and potential negotiating dates with the employer from May to December. We will continue to work on revising problematic language in the Collective Agreement and creating new Articles and language to address the priority concerns of our Unit 1 members.
This month, the Bargaining Committee will meet with the Bargaining Support Committee and members of CUPE Ontario to discuss media strategies and mobilizing for the coming months. We will be more than ready to negotiate for your rights when we get to the bargaining table. If you are interested in being a part of the Bargaining Support Committee, please reach out to us. In solidarity!
February 2025 – The Unit 1 Bargaining Committee has met several times since December to discuss the issues and challenges for our members, and to create the Bargaining Survey. The Bargaining Survey was sent out to over 1300 Unit 1 contract holders on Mon, Feb 3rd, and we created a flyer with a QR code that has been posted to bulletin boards across campus. The survey closes on Feb 24th. Please be sure to complete it, as your voice matters!
The Bargaining Committee attended two full-day Bargaining Training sessions and a Strategic Planning Session with our CUPE National Representative to map out the bargaining process. We have three additional meeting days scheduled in March to analyze the survey results and to create the Priority Proposals, which we will present at the end of March. Stay tuned for date and location information.