Game On!: Bargaining Resumes

Game On!: Bargaining Resumes

Negotiations with BCIT are resuming on Tuesday, July 7 after more than three months in hiatus.  The employer reports that they have spent the time trying to get approval to table an offer that includes new classifications for research.  The FSA has argued, and BCIT has largely agreed, that the collective agreement needs to better reflect the different forms that research work takes at BCIT.  The collective agreement can also do a better job of facilitating the kinds of research activity that are not really possible under the current agreement.  Despite strong rationale, BCIT has been denied that approval.

The Ministry of Advanced Education objects to the incorporation of research into the collective agreement.  Although the FSA has not dealt directly with the ministry in this round, we have heard of several grounds for refusing such changes in the past:

• Research work will redirect Instructors away from the classroom, meaning that provincial funding will deliver fewer students
• Including research in the collective agreement will increase pressure on the government to provide on-going funds for research activity at the colleges and institutes
• Incorporating research activity into the collective agreement will create pressure to increase salaries as college and institute faculty become more comparable to better paid university professors
• If one institution in the colleges and institutes sector writes research into the collective agreement, more institutions will try to do the same.

BCIT reports that they have received approval from the Post-Secondary Employer’s Association (PSEA) to table an offer package that does not include changes in the area of research.  We expect to see that package when bargaining resumes.

The Bargaining Team is reviewing our options for a settlement and for how we will deal with research issues in the absence of any agreement on those topics at bargaining.

Both the union and management have expressed hope that this phase of bargaining may move fairly quickly, with or without research.