Bargaining Update

Dear Members,

I’m writing with the very positive news that as a result of the active mobilization of our CUPE colleagues on campus, their willingness to move to strike votes, and the support of the FA and PEA for CUPE actions, that the provincial government has now agreed to provide the same full financial mandate to the CUPE unions, the UVic FA and PEA as what has already been offered to all of the other public sector unions in the province.

This means that we will have the same monetary package available to us that the BCGEU was able to secure after a lengthy strike, and that the provincial PEA and other Unions were able to secure following substantial mobilization. The University has been clear that their direction from the provincial government is that the enhancements to the mandate that have been achieved are to be centred on tangible service improvements and that these will need to be approved by the Public Sector Employers Council (PSEC).

So what does this mean for our bargaining?  It is very good news. The enhanced mandate provides significant additional resources beyond the original mandate, and these funds can be used to address member priorities such as improved benefits and workload-related concerns that affect the quality of education we are able to provide to our students. Any improvements will of course be subject to agreement by the administration’s bargaining team, as well as approval by PSEC, as noted above.

Your negotiating team still has much work to do to achieve a strong Collective Agreement.  As you are aware, we are still bargaining on a number of crucial issues related to language. We are committed to securing the best possible tentative agreement to bring back to you all for ratification, including optimizing the use of the enhanced mandate funds, and also ensuring protections around collegial governance, RPT, academic freedom, technological change and crucial equity issues.

We absolutely cannot make promises, but given this positive news, which allows us to move forward in bargaining on monetary matters, we are cautiously hopeful that we might have a tentative agreement to bring to you for ratification before the end of May.

The negotiating team as well as the FA’s Executive Committee hope that you will join us in thanking and celebrating the efforts of our union colleagues across campus whose clear messages that the post-secondary sector at UVic and across BC deserves the same level of support as other essential public services were instrumental in the provincial government moving on this issue. We are proud to have shown solidarity in supporting our CUPE colleagues and are glad the matter was resolved before it needed to escalate further.

Have a great weekend, and all the very best,

Lynne Marks