Bargaining Session #1
We are excited that bargaining has officially started as of yesterday, bringing us one step closer to establishing a fair contract! A year ago, almost to the day, a small group of us gathered to discuss the first steps in organizing a union. Yesterday, we exercised our collective power at the bargaining table. The bargaining team passed 15 proposals, which means we passed them to the College's bargaining team. This made for a really strong start and led to a productive first session. We are so grateful to the bargaining team members and the working groups for all their hard work and dedication to reach this point.
We passed the following proposals, all of which can be found linked on our proposal tracker here:
Academic Freedom
Discipline and Dismissal
Employment Records
Grievance and Arbitration
Health and Safety
Holidays
Prohibition Against Discrimination and Harassment
Severability
Shared Governance
Successorship
Titles
Union Rights and Access
Union Security
Union-Management Committee
Workspace and Materials
Following the passing of the proposals, the College's team asked a number of clarifying questions related to language, definitional scope, and time frames. Please read on for some additional notes about the first bargaining session:
Ground Rules
The College presented our bargaining team with some ground rules for negotiations. Our team will continue to discuss and respond to these ground rules during the next session. We made it clear to the College that we are committed to bargaining in good faith and to having productive sessions, and we are also committed to enabling members of the bargaining unit to observe negotiations.
Shared Governance
Much like what we heard in Academic Council on April 18, the question of shared governance is up for debate at the bargaining table. Our bargaining committee emphasized to the College that preserving shared governance is a high priority bargaining goal for our members, and we believe that shared governance has a place in faculty contracts.