Negotiating Update April 30, 2021
April 30, 2021
SAFA’s Negotiating Committee has now met with our SAIT counterparts twice and exchanged initial proposals. A review of these proposals has made it clear to SAFA that the two documents are very far apart. You can review SAFA’s proposal to SAIT in our previous blog post.
The first thing the Negotiating Committee noticed about SAIT’s proposal is that most of it is missing – SAIT has “redlined” complete sections or concepts from the current collective agreement without submitting an alternative proposal. We understand that Higher Education is experiencing a fundamental shift in educational practices, and we embrace the possibilities of work from home, online teaching, and other new modalities. However, this is a time of great jeopardy as well as opportunity. The outcome of these negotiations will set the structure for our workload, compensation, and professional supports for years to come. Therefore, the Negotiating Team has asked SAIT to provide a complete and meaningful proposal so that that we can work together to continue to be a “global leader in applied education”.
The highlights of SAIT’s proposal:
- SAIT removed the entire professional development section, redlining the dollar value and all definitions. This was replaced with a vague statement about moving to a new program.
- SAIT removed bereavement, family illness, and personal leave days – a reduction of leave by up to 12 days. SAIT has also highlighted that vacation days will be impacted by their monetary proposal.
- SAIT wants to undo our hard-fought gains from the last round of bargaining by reducing the entitlements of casual faculty or removing them from our collective agreement. They erased all mention of this role with their edits. As well, they propose moving non-credit adjunct staff out of our agreement.
- SAIT did not submit a monetary statement but we expect they will eventually come to the table seeking significant salary rollbacks, since they “red lined” the entire salary grid section of the current collective agreement.
- We don’t even know what to say about workload compensation other than – it’s gone. SAIT removed entire sections on workload, overtime, and overload pay without submitting an alternative proposal.
At this time, SAFA cannot provide a more comprehensive analysis of SAIT’s opening proposal since significant portions are missing. Based on the large number of issues, the Negotiating Committee expects that bargaining will be a complex, prolonged process and we appreciate member’s patience. Once more information is provided, we will provide a more detailed analysis of SAIT’s proposal through ongoing blog posts.
If you have comments or questions, please attend an upcoming town hall meeting the week of May 10th where the Negotiating Committee will present more information. See upcoming SAFA emails for the meeting links.