Mediation began between NAIT and NASA on Monday, April 28, 2025 with the assistance of mediator Greg Francis.
Highlights of first day
This meditation is “shuttled”, meaning NASA and NAIT are in separate rooms, and the mediator goes in between, splitting time with each party.
NASA spent the morning yesterday familiarizing the mediator with some of the priorities NASA members and the bargaining committee have identified and proposed.
That included a lengthy discussion on the issues created by the introduction of IA IIs to teach without NAIT raising the possibility in the last round of bargaining, the resulting displacement of NASA members in the lab, and the increased workload that has produced.
The need to see improvements for precarious staff was also discussed, including moving back to just two types of staff, either permanent or non-permanent, and no longer having a “casual” type of employee who has fewer rights and lesser pay for their work. At the same time, recognition that a path to becoming a permanent employee needs to be stronger, and that non-permanent staff can have benefits too, as they do at other institutes.
Workload was a huge topic, with the impacts of class sizes discussed, and the need for NAIT to ensure it is not assigning work that is going to regularly require additional time beyond your paid 36.25 hours of work a week. Your bargaining committee has proposed a number of positive changes to the agreement to improve workload, and understand this is a priority as high as wages for many members, and even higher for others.
To date, the only workload counter-proposal NAIT has provided has been on the workload review process, looking to remove one of the steps and allow for the process to be lengthier when Associate Deans and Deans respond to the violations of Article 16 brought to their attention.
For the second day on April 29, we will be discussing workload even further, moving away from “shuttled” negotiations to being in the room with both NAIT and the mediator to see if any progress can be made.
First AUPE strike vote
On April 24, 2025 there was an update from AUPE about their 23,000 Government of Alberta worker members, who are taking a strike vote May 8 – 12 after formal mediation failed. The employer only offered 11.5% over four years or less than an average of 3% per year, while their bargaining committee had compromised on their opening offer, reducing it to 24% over four years from their opening proposal of 26% plus Cost of Living Adjustments over three years.
Another survey question – IA IIs
Last week’s survey question on ensuring improvements to the proportion of continuing staff delivering SIH and doing non-Instructor work was overwhelmingly in favour of having the proportion higher than the current 67%. Add that to a no-concessions contract and one where your pay increase is retroactive to the things NASA members expect in a new collective agreement.
Today’s question is going back to the issue of Instructional Assistant IIs (IA IIs). While NASA has a pending arbitration on the issue, it can also be clearly addressed in collective bargaining. In 2023, 617 NASA members signed a petition calling for NAIT not to use IA IIs to teach or replace NASA members. NASA members overwhelmingly agreed with this position in the winter 2024 bargaining survey, and so your bargaining committee has proposed that IA IIs be prohibited from teaching (delivering technical lessons), and that they not only be prevented from displacing NASA members through redundancy, but also through attrition or reduction in hours of work.
The question that was asked in the email was: “Should any proposed agreement protect against IA IIs teaching?”
Stay tuned for regular updates and more polling through mediation, and please keep the feedback, suggestions, concerns, and encouragement coming!
In solidarity,
Trevor Zimmerman