Bargaining Newsletter #6 :
Concordia works because WE do. 

CREW is back at the bargaining table! Since September 9th, we’ve had four sessions with Concordia’s bargaining team. Typically, our team suggests new language for the Collective Agreement based on members’ demands, and then we expect Concordia’s team to respond with a revised version they would accept.

Here’s how that has been going:

1. Health and Safety – Concordia provided a disappointing counter-proposal undermining all the concrete protections we suggested by reducing them to vague summaries rather than real commitments we can hold them to.

2. Combatting structural violence, harassment, and discrimination – Our team opened discussion on this item and Concordia…didn’t like it? They refused to commit to even giving a written counter-proposal, meaning they don’t want to move towards any form of accountability on paper.

3. Accessibility – Our team brought up our demands for disability accommodations like extended deadlines, providing necessary equipment, and allowing for remote teaching, which the professional staff union, CUPEU, recently won after striking for just two weeks! Concordia wasted time by making hypothetical counter-arguments, painting a picture of our members as wanting to abuse or mis-apply such accommodations. Once again, they made no commitment to provide a written counter-proposal, in addition to reminding us how they really see us.

Health and Safety was voted the second most important bargaining demand by CREW members, after a pay rise that accounts for the rising cost of living. Concordia’s bargaining team is slow, evasive, and noncommittal on our attempts to craft a Collective Agreement that guarantees a safe and equitable workplace – issues Concordia claims to care about, but refuses to act on in a meaningful, accountable way.

Let’s fight together for the collective agreement we deserve!