Bargaining Bulletin #1

March 19, 2010

To: Heads Up – Vancouver and Okanagan
From: Lisa Castle, AVP, Human Resources
Cc: HR Advisors & Associates
Re: Bargaining Bulletin #1 – Collective Bargaining – 2010

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide you with an update on developments in collective bargaining at UBC. An overview of collective bargaining (including information on the bargaining units) is available at http://www.hr.ubc.ca/collective-bargaining/.

This is the first of a number of updates that will be provided to you during this year on the matter of collective bargaining. As the agreements that were negotiated in March 2006 expire during the course of this year, it is important that we inform you of the nature of bargaining this year and the process that will unfold.

Let’s start with us. The University will negotiate with bargaining teams for the unions and associations for all 9 of our agreements. Here is a complete list in alphabetical order:

• AAPS – expires June 30, 2010: Represents approximately 3,100 management and professional staff at both Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.

• BCGEU (Okanagan) – expires June 30, 2010: Represents approximately 255 Clerical, Secretarial, Maintenance Workers and Research Assistants at the Okanagan campus.

• BCGEU (Vancouver – child care) – expires April 30, 2010: Represents approximately 145 Childcare Workers at the Vancouver campus.

• CUPE 116 (main agreement) – expires March 31, 2010: Represents approximately 2,000 trades, food and custodial workers, parking attendants, engineering technicians, research assistants, campus security patrol, and a few clerical/secretarial positions at the Vancouver campus.

• CUPE 116 (Aquatic Centre) – expires December 31, 2010:Represents approximately 92 life guards/instructors at the Aquatic Centre at the Vancouver campus.

• CUPE 2278 (TAs & English Language Instructors in Continuing Studies) – expires August 31, 2010: Represents approximately 2,900 Teaching Assistants (Component 1) and 60 Non-credit instructors in the English Language Institute (Component 2) at the Vancouver campus.

• CUPE 2950 (including Chan Centre) – expires March 31, 2010:Represents approximately 1,700 Clerical and Secretarial Workers and Library Assistants, as well as front of house and back of house staff at the Chan Centre at the Vancouver campus.

• IUOE 882 – expires March 31, 2010:Represents approximately 62 Maintenance and Shift Engineers in Building Operations at the Vancouver campus.

• UBC Faculty Association – expires June 30, 2010:Represents approximately 3,150 professors, instructors, lecturers, librarians, program directors (Continuing Studies) and sessional lecturers at both Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.

As you can see, this represents a significant and important undertaking this year. We started bargaining with the UBC Faculty Association on February 1, 2010 with the exchange of proposal (view current faculty updates online at http://www.hr.ubc.ca/faculty-relations). We are waiting to begin bargaining with CUPE 116, CUPE 2950 and IUOE 882 whose agreements expire at the end of this month. We expect they will want to get started in the next few weeks.

You may find it interesting to know that we will be bargaining our agreements at the same time as most other provincial public sector employers including other universities, health, K-12, Crown corporations, colleges and institutes, social services, etc. Over 170 agreements covering over 200,000 employees will be negotiated in the same period as ours. The significant exceptions are nurses who have already negotiated their agreement through 2012, and teachers whose agreement opens up next year.

It is fundamental to remember that bargaining in the public sector of British Columbia has been governed by mandates established by the Provincial Government since 1993. 2010 is no exception with the issuance of “Mandate 2010” in November 2009 (reference: http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/psec/bargaining2010/). Pursuant to that mandate, the University is required to submit bargaining plans to the Public Sector Employers’ Council Secretariat (PSEC – http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/psec/) for approval. We have done so and have received our approvals, which set up an iterative process with PSEC as bargaining progresses.

As part of our process at UBC, HR’s final bargaining mandates for the University’s bargaining teams are set by the Employee Relations Committee of the Board of Governors upon the recommendation of the Executive. These mandates are required to be inclusive of and compliant with PSEC’s Mandate 2010, and are in place.

Thank you for your interest in this critical process this year. It matters to all of us.

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