Bargaining Update, May 2023
On Friday April 28, the FSA’S Bargaining Team and the employer met at the main table for the 16th time during this round of negotiations, which began back on September 28, 2022. We have also had a number of side-table meetings to delve into deeper discussions about specific issues. In April, the parties began the process of exchanging “comprehensive” proposal packages. When agreed, a comprehensive package, along with all the green sheets (AKA tentatively agreed proposals), will form our tentative agreement—the settlement agreement that will be brought to our membership for ratification. Bargaining is moving in the right direction, and we have two days scheduled back at the table in mid-June.
As we’ve previously detailed, public-sector bargaining in British Columbia proceeds through what’s known as pattern bargaining. The provincial bargaining mandate—covering public-sector workers whose collective agreements expired after December 30, 2021, called the Shared Recovery Mandate—applies to all unionized public-sector workers in the province. In effect, the Mandate establishes the pattern for the provincial public sector, and this round’s mandate is arguably the strongest in the country for public-sector post-secondary workers. About ¾ of public-sector workers in BC have tentative or ratified collective agreements this round, all of whom have reached essentially identical monetary and term conditions.
Collective Agreements are, of course, about more than just wages, and our Bargaining Team continues to work with BCIT to get the best deal possible for our membership. In January 2022, I reported in a General Meeting that—out of the member bargaining priority survey and approved by the Board of Directors—our Board approved 7 themes for this round:
- Equity and reconciliation
- Being valued
- Benefit refresh
- Working together
- Building back better
- Clear intentions
- No concessions
These values continue to guide the Bargaining Team’s work 15 months and 16 bargaining sessions later, even where the employer and the province have placed hurdles in our path. We hope to have a tentative agreement in place within the next several months for ratification. Until that time, we will continue to represent the interests of our members and uphold the rights won in the previous Collective Agreement.
In solidarity,
