As Academic Staff Members (ASMs) work to conclude the current semester and prepare for Winter 2022, MUNFA’s Negotiating Committee offers the following update on the collective bargaining process.
As outlined in a recent Information Bulletin, MUNFA’s bargaining priorities focus on: equity, diversity, and inclusion; Indigenization of the Collective Agreement; improved working conditions for our most precarious colleagues; climate action; improved governance, openness, and transparency; and due process for our members. MUNFA’s Executive Committee has approved these priorities and the accompanying set of proposals, and it now falls to MUNFA’s Negotiating Committee to secure a fair, equitable collective agreement in line with these priorities.
Despite notifying the employer of MUNFA’s desire to bargain on August 19, 2021 and indicating our availability for an initial bargaining session in December of this year, the employer’s team is not available to meet until January, 2022. While we hope this does not signal another protracted round of bargaining similar to the previous round, MUNFA volunteers will be working on your behalf to prepare for all eventualities. To that effect, we continue to seek volunteersfor a Job Action Committee and Contract Action Committee.
We hope that ASMs take this holiday break to relax from what has been a challenging semester for all, and we ask that you keep an eye out for updates from the Negotiating Committee in the new year.
In solidarity,
MUNFA’s Negotiating Committee:
- Jon Church, Medicine (Co-Lead Negotiator)
- Nicole Power, Sociology (Co-Lead Negotiator)
- Dan Duda, QE II Library
- Patrick Gamsby, QE II Library
- John Hoben, Education
- Nathalie Pender, Grenfell Campus
- Janna Rosales, Engineering & Applied Science
- Ken Snelgrove, Engineering & Applied Science
- Erwin Warkentin, Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
- Amy Wadden, MUNFA Labour Relations Officer (non-voting member)
- Dale Humphries, MUNFA Labour Relations Coordinator (non-voting member)
