Bargaining Newsletter #2 :
Concordia works because WE do.
After months of hard work and organizing, we are now negotiating with Concordia to win a better deal for TAs and RAs!
In our last two sessions we have begun trading proposals over the language of our Collective Agreement, focusing on Union Rights and Security, Payment Procedures, and Intellectual Property. Each week we have had a good handful of CREW members join us in the room (literally and virtually) to observe negotiations and participate in the open bargaining structure. These observers have seen firsthand how the employer negotiates, and have provided us with valuable insights in our collective negotiations.
As a democratic fighting union we need you to join us in the negotiation room. Sign up for the next session here!
Session #3: Tuesday May 7, 2024
In the third bargaining session CREW and the employer finalized our bargaining protocol document, and we began getting into the language in our Collective Agreement. From our five attending member observers we welcomed Bargaining Action Team member and Internal Affairs Officer Zachary Mitchell to kick us off with a comprehensive presentation of our goals and proposed amendments for Union Rights and Security. In this presentation we focused on Articles 8 and 9 of the Collective Agreement, specifically:
Improving the information provided to the union so it can better support the membership
Increasing our presence in spaces where new and prospective union members will be, like orientations, so that we can ensure new members are able to connect with us as they sign their contracts and navigate the Workload Form processes.
Improving the FRIS interface
Codifying the relevant procedures into the Collective Agreement that CREW and the employer have already developed.
In this initial conversation we were able to find some points of agreement but got quite a bit of pushback from the employer. They added to the conversation a proposal that would greatly restrict the union’s access to room booking and use of university spaces. We concluded the session by requesting the employer prepare a specific counter proposal to the language of these articles. We also left the meeting with a proposal from the employer asking for an adjustment to language in Clause 21.03 on how members submit their banking information to payroll.
Session #4: Tuesday May 14, 2024
In session four we had a productive discussion of Clause 21.03 and have come to an agreement on the language ensuring that the employer would provide additional tech support if members encounter issues with the University’s software. We followed this with a review of the employer’s counter-proposal for Union Rights and Security (Articles 8 and 9) and asked some clarifying questions for the purpose of developing and presenting our next version of the articles at session 5. In this session we also began a conversation with the employer about Intellectual Property by presenting our proposal for Article 7.
Did you know that…
Any original pedagogical material that you create as a TA to support students currently is not protected under any Intellectual Property policy? This is a concerning gap in our Collective Agreement and is not the standard for Academic workers at Concordia or elsewhere.
We are working to rectify this and in our upcoming bargaining meeting the employer will be bringing one of their lawyers to provide their perspective on IP. In our next meeting we will continue this discussion of Intellectual Property, and return to Union Rights and Security to see where we can come to an agreement, and begin revising Articles 1 and 2 which lay out the stated purposes of the agreement and some important definitions which run throughout it.
We are very excited to be in this process of updating our Collective Agreement to reflect the needs of our members, and we want your input in the process!
Sign up to attend negotiation sessions using the links below!
In solidarity,
The Bargaining Action Team