AUPE Local 52
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees
June 12-13, 2024
The University and AUPE met on June 12-13 to continue in-person bargaining. To date, all proposals by the university have been presented as revised collective agreement language as is customary. Many of these have included offering concessions to the union with a view to reaching agreement. The Union, on the other hand, has tabled “discussion points” and, with prompting, only one formal proposal (a monetary item) as collective agreement language. The University’s committee requested that AUPE table remaining non-monetary proposals in collective agreement language. Unfortunately, they were unwilling to do so. Despite this, both parties were able to agree on a minor amendment to a Letter of Understanding. Otherwise, it was a disappointing and somewhat unproductive bargaining session.
The session concluded with the Union indicating it would be submitting a request for informal mediation to the Director of Mediation Services with the Alberta Labour Relations Board. Informal mediation is not a required step in collective bargaining but in this case the University welcomes the assistance of a mediator in helping move discussions forward. The parties are in the process of confirming mediation dates. These are unlikely to occur before the fall.
The university continues to be ready and willing to negotiate a renewed collective agreement with AUPE. We understand that communications shared during collective bargaining can seem as though the parties are at odds, but we want to reiterate that the University values the contributions of and services performed by our support staff and look forward to continuing discussions with the AUPE bargaining committee and reaching an agreement.
The University and AUPE bargaining committees continued negotiations on a new collective agreement on May 22-23, 2024. During this bargaining session, the university tabled a counter proposal on an open non-monetary item. Despite the parties agreeing to park discussions on monetary items, AUPE wanted to discuss Article OP/FTX29 (Vacations). On the second day, the union tabled a formal proposal on vacations which included monetary enhancements.
The parties are due to meet again in-person on June 12-13, 2024, and have agreed to a virtual bargaining session on July 8th, 2024. The university looks forward to continuing discussions on non-monetary items as agreed.
The University and AUPE bargaining committees met again on May 1st and 2nd to continue negotiations on a new collective agreement. The university tabled some counterproposals, including one to which both parties agreed. They began the second day by tabling full monetary proposals. The bulk of the second day was spent reviewing each other’s proposals in detail, seeking clarification, and discussing interests. As is customary in collective bargaining, the parties agreed to defer negotiations on monetary items until non-monetary discussions have been exhausted.
The University of Calgary and AUPE Local 052 commenced bargaining on March 28th, 2024 and exchanged non-monetary proposals on April 11th, 2024. The parties engaged in productive dialogue and were able to agree on a few minor amendments to the collective agreement with many more items still to discuss. Additional bargaining dates are scheduled for May 1st and 2nd and June 12th and 13th. We look forward to continuing our negotiations and working towards a new collective agreement for university support staff.