Hello NASA members,
This is a long, but important, update.
Essential Services Agreement (ESA) Finished
Since informal mediation ended, we have been working towards negotiating an Essential Services Agreement with NAIT, which will allow us to apply for formal mediation. We have come to an agreement and will be signing it this week. Once the ESA is signed, we will submit it to the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB) for filing, which could take a few weeks. In the meantime, we can apply for formal mediation.
Six Days Set for Formal Mediation
We will be using the same mediator for formal mediation – Greg Francis.
Provided that the ALRB has filed our ESA in time, our dates for mediation are as follows:
- November 25
- December 1, 2, 8, 9, 12
Formal mediation will require us to be confidential – we won’t be able to tell you about the details being passed back and forth between the parties. There are three possibilities coming out of formal mediation:
- Mediator Recommendations – The mediator writes a report of recommendations for the collective agreement that NASA members would vote on. NASA and the bargaining committee would have to remain “neutral” and would not be allowed to weigh in with our thoughts about it. (Both the nurses and the teachers voted down a mediator’s recommendations during this round of bargaining, which sent a strong message to the employer.)
- Tentative Agreement – The NAIT and NASA bargaining committees come to a tentative agreement that NASA members would vote on. It is unclear if we would have to remain neutral, but our stance would insist on transparency and open communication with members.
- Mediator “Writes Out” – An impasse is declared, and the mediator agrees. A 14-day cooling-off period would follow, with a strike vote likely. If this occurs, NASA can communicate with full transparency.
Preparing for Formal Mediation
In preparation for formal mediation, it is important that we continue to build our message of unity.
- 500+ strike pledge cards have been signed, which shows NAIT that there is significant support of the bargaining team, up to and including the possibility of strike action.
- NASA Ready to Launch campaign – We have made buttons, Teams backgrounds, Outlook profile images, and placards for you to show visible solidarity with your bargaining team before and during mediation. Please come to the NASA office to get your button and/or placard. The Teams/Zoom background and profile image are attached to this email.
Bargaining Town Halls
Approximately 200 people attended the town halls in October, and the discussion at each was enthusiastic and thoughtful. Some highlights:
- NAIT can and does dictate many of the details surrounding our jobs: pausing programs, changing the LMS, hiring more management (+9.1%) and employing fewer instructors (-4.1%), but negotiating a strong collective agreement is the most powerful tool we have to ensure improvements to our day-to-day work life.
- While it appears that other unions have settled for 12% over four years, that is an oversimplification. Unions that have stayed unified through formal mediation, voting down agreements, taking strike votes, etc., have received significant monetary (and other) improvements to their agreements in addition to the percentage wage increases. It is obvious that the government mandate is12%, so it’s essentially a given that we will eventually be offered that. It doesn’t constitute “movement” from NAIT.
- NASA has identified priority areas: Wages, workload, job security, benefits/health, policy/rights. We have many proposals on the table still, with the idea that something will be agreeable to both parties, instead of narrowing possible solutions down so far that we limit our options. Perhaps some of these priorities will lead to improvements over and above the mandated 12%.
- NAIT has numerous proposals on the table still that make our collective agreement worse, including proposals that:
- Increase class sizes
- Increase program delivery window from 10 hours to 12 hours
- Change threshold to approve working on Reading Week days from when “feasible” to when “required.”
- Upon ratification, NAIT has informed us they will stick to the strict wording of the agreement and only allow 50 days of vacation time to accrue
- Expand the scope of casual and temporary categories – making it easier to not hire continuing academic staff
- Remove reference to “primary responsibility” of academic staff for instructional design and delivery to simply “recognize” that instructors “engage” in delivery and design
- Remove the provision that guarantees half of vacation must be given in summer months
- Have us pay for 40% of our benefits costs
- Remove “express written consent from NASA” from the clause about changing benefit coverages. They want to “consult” instead.
- Remove NASA access to internal communications, like phone and email
- Force experience leaves
- Eliminate the requirement for 50% NASA representation on selection committees
- Mandate 1:1 time off in lieu of weekend work, like the Open House
The coming weeks will test our unity and resolve, but they also mark a turning point. With over 500 members pledging their support, NASA has never been stronger or more prepared to stand together. Whether mediation results in a fair agreement or a call to action, our message remains the same: we are ready, we are united, and we are determined to achieve a collective agreement that reflects the true value of the work we do every day.
In solidarity,
Shauna MacDonald (she/her/hers)
