On Friday afternoon, June 26, 2026, MUNFA’s Negotiating Committee and the Administration’s Negotiating Committee met briefly to begin negotiations for a new Collective Agreement, following notice to bargaincommunicated in a previous information bulletin.

In Friday’s initial bargaining session, the parties addressed housekeeping matters including agreement on a bargaining protocol. The Administration provided MUNFA with several of its initial proposals, opting to hold discussion until the next meeting dates, which are scheduled for August 17-18, 2026. MUNFA’s Negotiating Committee will likewise pass proposals to the Administration in advance of the next negotiating sessions.

The MUNFA Negotiating Committee will take the time necessary to carefully and thoroughly review these proposals and be prepared to respond when the parties next meet. An initial review, however, indicates a series of proposed changes that appear to represent a significant shift away from shared governance and toward an expansion of management rights, and are consistent with Administration’s publicly stated plans for a smaller and restructured institution. MUNFA will provide members with a fuller analysis once the Committee has completed its review.

MUNFA’s priorities for this round of bargaining are:

• Workload and support: MUNFA is seeking to address unsustainable workloads and ensure members have balance and support in the work they do. Proposals include reducing teaching norms from five courses to four courses in all Academic Units, recognizing the full scope of academic work such as graduate supervision and mentoring, and strengthening faculty complement language so that Academic Units have the people required to carry out their core functions. We are also looking to ensure all members, including those on term appointments, have timely access to appropriate accommodations, technology, software, and technical support.
• Job security and protections: Given Administration’s intention to pursue a smaller university, the security of members’ employment has become a central concern this round. Proposals would strengthen protections for contract faculty by increasing the length of minimum contracts, prioritizing Regular Term Appointments, and creating clearer pathways to permanent and tenure-track appointments. MUNFA is also bringing forward language to guard against the use of AI to replace members’ work or reduce their incomes, and to extend layoff protections to ASM-CFEs.
• Shared governance: The erosion of shared governance at Memorial is something MUNFA intends to confront directly. Proposals would define shared governance in the Collective Agreement, affirm the Administration’s responsibility not to undermine collegial processes in managerial rights, and ensure ASMs can participate meaningfully in decision-making with access to transparent information.
• Equity: New language would broaden the forms of scholarship recognized for promotion to include community-based, public engagement, and activist work, and remove barriers that disadvantage members of equity-deserving groups.
• Discipline and grievance process: Proposals would improve the handling of disciplinary documentation, tighten and enforce timelines, and streamline the arbitration and mediation processes so that grievances are resolved more fairly and efficiently.
• Salary, remuneration and paid leave: MUNFA will seek fair and reasonable improvements to compensation and leave. Proposals include increased remuneration for overload and laboratory teaching, stipends recognizing administrative responsibilities, increases to professional development funding, and improvements to sick leave, compassionate leave and other paid leave provisions.

MUNFA is represented at the table by:

Nicole Power (Department of Sociology), Co-Lead Negotiator
Amy Wadden (MUNFA Labour Relations Officer), Co-Lead Negotiator
Luke Ashworth (Department of Political Science)
Sean Cadigan (Department of History)
Dan Duda (University Library)
James LeBlanc (Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography)
Leroy Murphy (Faculty of Business Administration)
Camille Ouellet-Dallaire (School of Science and the Environment)
Janna Rosales (Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science)
Carolyn Walsh (Department of Psychology)
Yolanda Wiersma (Department of Biology)

The Administration is represented by:

Darren Stratton, Lead Negotiator (external counsel; Senior Partner, McInnes Cooper)
Scott Kelly, Director of Faculty Relations
Sarah Anthony, Associate Director of Faculty Relations
Dr. Travor Brown, Dean of Faculty of Business Administration
Dr. Shawn Bugden, Dean of School of Pharmacy
Dr. Anne-Marie Sullivan, Dean of School of Human Kinetics and Recreation
Dr. Peter Ride, Dean of the School of Fine Arts, Grenfell Campus
Dr. James Gauld, Dean of Faculty of Science

Please reach out to the MUNFA office at munfa@mun.ca if you have any questions or comments.