President’s Report to Stewards’ Council on Bargaining

10 Nov 05 - As you know YUFA Executive has provided you with a list of potential bargaining issues provided by the work of the Contract Review Committee. We urge Stewards to send any comments on these or other potential bargaining issues to the Bargaining Priorities Subcommittee c/o yufa@yorku.ca.

The procedure employed for the upcoming bargaining of the next collective agreement is as follows. A year ago YUFA Executive appointed a Contract Review Committee to thoroughly review the 2003-2006 Collective Agreement and identify potential bargaining issues for the negotiation of the next Collective Agreement. They completed their work and have reported to Executive. The next step is the appointment of the Bargaining Priorities Subcommittee to identify bargaining priorities and develop a bargaining position. It was understood at the time of appointment of the Contract Review Committee that some or all of the members would be likely to sit on the Bargaining Priorities Subcommittee. YUFA Executive has invited certain YUFA members to serve on that subcommittee and we anticipate that most if not all of those invited will accept and serve on the subcommittee. After the subcommittee reports to YUFA Executive, Executive will then prepare a primary bargaining position and send it to Stewards’ Council for approval. If Stewards’ Council approves the primary negotiating position it will then go to the membership for approval. If approved by the membership then the Executive will appoint a collective bargaining team.

The upcoming negotiations are made more complex by the issue of the ending of mandatory retirement. We are having preliminary discussions with the Employer concerning the immediate ending of mandatory retirement through the Long Range Planning Subcommittee of the Joint Committee on the Administration of the Agreement. Note that JCOAA cannot be used as a vehicle to modify the existing Collective Agreement, so if the Employer and YUFA decide to negotiate a modification of the existing Collective Agreement ending mandatory retirement then Executive will appoint a special bargaining group. If agreement is reached and endorsed by YUFA Executive it then must be approved by the membership at a Special General Meeting. Should such agreement not be reached then the issue of ending mandatory retirement must be dealt with during the negotiation of the new Collective Agreement.