NASA Bargaining Committee Meeting
Your NASA Bargaining Committee met virtually on the evening of July 30 to discuss NAIT’s proposed bargaining protocol and to finalize some proposals. The committee will meet again on the evening of August 28.
Bargaining Protocol – Not Formalized
Written bargaining protocols are not required by the labour code, and they are not common at current post-secondary bargaining tables in Alberta. Therefore, after spending the first full day at the bargaining table (as well as committee time away from the table) trying to come to a common ground on a bargaining protocol, your bargaining committee made the decision to not pursue a formalized protocol for two main reasons: focusing on actual bargaining proposals is our priority, and agreeing to NAIT’s proposal would have been detrimental to NASA by limiting or preventing observers and by having bargaining cost the association as much as $200,000 per year by insisting upon more daytime sessions.
NAIT’s Ingoing Proposals
You can read NAIT’s Ingoing Proposal Summary HERE
It is important to note that NAIT did not provide a proposal regarding wages, while many of their ingoing proposals have monetary implications. At first glance, we have counted 35 concessions proposed by NAIT. We will give further insight into these concessions going forward, but for now would like to highlight the following items proposed by NAIT:
- Larger class sizes
- Charging NASA members 40% of the premium cost of extended health benefits
- Removing the requirement that NASA provide written agreement before NAIT can make changes to the benefit plan entitlements
- Increasing SIH thresholds for six post diploma certificate programs
- Including Educational Lab Technologists in Article 53 language, alongside Instructional Assistants
- Weakening the workload review process by cutting timelines and removing NASA involvement from the highest review level
NASA’s Ingoing Proposals
You can read NASA’s Ingoing Proposal Summary HERE
NASA provided our full package of proposals, including our wage proposal. Here are some highlights:
- Wage increases (25% in the first year, and 10% plus COLA in the second year)
- Reducing the class size formula to help reduce class sizes
- Decreased SIH thresholds across all SIH delivery categories
- Protections from Instructional Assistant IIs or any support staff from teaching and replacing NASA staff
As you know, NASA is committed to a more transparent bargaining process, so we’ve linked to NAIT’s proposal summaries here, and NASA’s proposal summaries here. Next week, we will distribute both NAIT’s and NASA’s proposal packages in their entirety for you to see.
As always, we encourage your feedback during this process, so please get in touch if you have any questions or comments.
We’ll end again with a quote from an observer who was there with us:
“I think it’s exceptionally important to attend bargaining sessions because NAIT likes to say “your work is appreciated” a lot, but this is where they truly show how much value they place on our work. Until those words are put into action, they are going to stay just that: words.”
In solidarity,