The year 2012-13 will be the last year of our three year agreements, and MAFA will begin its preparation for collective bargaining in that year. Stay tuned!

Background on the last round (most recent events appear first)

Both sides ratified the new collective agreements, they were signed on March 22, 2011, and they came into force on that day.

The two sides met on February 15th and 16th, 2011, and arrived at tentative agreements on Wednesday evening. They now await ratification.

The MAFA Negotiating Team has proposed a return to the negotiating table and is awaiting a response from the Employer.

The Conciliation Board released its report on January 27th, 2011, and shortly thereafter the Employer said it would accept the recommendations. The MAFA membership met on February 8th to discuss the report, and then held a straw vote at that time and the next morning. By a vote of 55% to 45% the membership rejected the report. The main reasons were as follows:

1. Members were concerned that the Conciliation Board process serves only to disrupt free collective bargaining;
2. The Conciliation Board report failed to provide specific recommendations for some important outstanding issues;
3. Issues of great importance for the part-time unit were ignored in the report, which recommended an increase which would bring part-time members to a salary of only $26,753 for the equivalent of full-time work, with virtually no benefits.
4. The report’s recommended salary offer would see Mount Allison’s salaries fall further behind those of other New Brunswick universities.

During the week of January 3rd, 2011, MAFA and the Employer team held its 65th meeting on the two contracts. On Thursday and Friday, January 13th and 14th, the two teams will meet with the provincially-appointed Conciliation Board to try to make progress. (These meetings may also go into the weekend.) The Conciliation Board has agreed to meet the Minister's expectation that, in the absence of a tentative agreement, they will file their report by January 31, 2011.

On December 9-10, 2010, two days of work with the Conciliation Board took place in Moncton. At that time and since, some minor progress has been made on some articles in the two agreements.

Normally the Minister of Labour issues a "no-board report," which would have allowed MAFA and the Employer to move to the next phase of the bargaining process, after conciliation had not succeeded in generating a tentative settlement. However, the new Minister of Post-secondary Education, Labour and Training, Ms. Martine Coulombe, decided to appoint a Conciliation Board, despite MAFA's opposition to this move. MAFA appointed Dr. Chris Ferns (MSVU), the Employer appointed Eric Durnford, QC, and the two sides agreed to Mr. Jim Oakley, of St. John's, Newfoundland. as the Chair of the three-person panel.

The MAFA and Employer teams continued to negotiate after the end of conciliation.

Citing a lack of progress, MAFA called for an end to conciliation on October 4th. Conciliation had run for 46 days, starting on August 19th.

On On Tuesday, September 28th, negotiations were suspended until sometime after October 11th at the request of the Employer's Chief Negotiator. This date was 90 days after MAFA's two collective agreements expired.

On Monday, August 30th MAFA held a meeting of the bargaining unit, and a straw strike vote. Of the 114 members who voted, 92.1% were in favour of the motion.

The two sides resumed discussions on August 3, 2010. By mid to late August, the conciliator arrived to participate in these negotiations.

By early July 2010, after having met with the Employer negotiating team 23 times, the Negotiating Team, with the support of the MAFA Executive, applied to the provincial Minister of Labour for the appointment of a Conciliation Officer. The Employer did not participate in this application. The provincial government appointed Mr. Richard Merrill as the Conciliation Officer to assist the parties in arriving at new collective agreements.

On June 30, 2010, our full-time (Unit 1) and part-time (Unit 2) collective agreements with Mount Allison University expired.

In 2009, MAFA created 17 subcommittees of the Collective Bargaining committee as part of the preparation process for upcoming bargaining.

Each subcommittee held one or more public gatherings to discuss its portfolio. Members were informed of these meetings via email and newsletters (where possible), and these events are listed below for posterity (listed in order of the last event to take place).

Each subcommittee submitted a report to the MAFA Collective Bargaining Committee, which developed a set of proposals in contract language for the Negotiating Team. In the winter and spring of 2010 the Collective Bargaining Committee presented these proposals for Unit 1 and Unit 2 to the Executive, the Negotiating Team and the Membership. Here are the dates of the subcommittee meetings.

December 4 -- Collegial Rights and Working Conditions Subcommittee, Friday, December 4th, 2:45 pm, McCain Student Centre Room 124 (Bermuda Wing). All members are welcome. Contact person: Ivan Cohen, icohen@mta.ca

December 1 -- Tenure and Promotion Subcommittee, Tuesday, December 1st, 4 pm, Dunn 108 (Mini-Wu). All members are welcome. Contact person: Michael Fox, mfox@mta.ca

November 26 -- Equity Subcommittee, Thursday, November 26th, 4 pm, Hart Hall 215. All members are welcome. Contact person: Bruce Robertson, broberts@mta.ca

November 17 -- Monetary Issues Subcommittee, second focus group, Tuesday, November 17th, 5 pm, Avard Dixon 116. All members are welcome. Contact person: Nauman Farooqi, nfarooqi@mta.ca

November 17 -- Workload Subcommittee, Tuesday, November 17th, 1 pm, Dunn 104. All members are welcome. Contact person: Diana Hamilton, dhamilton@mta.ca

November 16 -- Evaluations Subcommittee, Monday, November 16th, 4 pm, Crabtree 304 (Modern Languages seminar room). All members are welcome. Contact person: Renata Schellenberg, rschelle@mta.ca

November 12 -- Union Rights Subcommittee, Thursday, November 12th, 10:30 am, Dunn 111. All members are welcome. Contact person: Bob Rosebrugh, rrosebrugh@mta.ca.

November 6 -- Librarians' Issues Subcommittee, Friday, November 6th, 9 am, Bell Library Room M12 (main floor of the library). All members are welcome. Contact person: Anita Cannon, acannon@mta.ca

November 4 -- Benefits Subcommittee, Wednesday, November 4th, 3 pm, Bennett Building, Room G03. All members are welcome. Contact person: Gina Grandy, ggrandy@mta.ca

November 3 -- Monetary Issues Subcommittee, Tuesday, November 3rd, 4 pm, Crabtree Room 223. All members are welcome. Contact person: Nauman Farooqi, nfarooqi@mta.ca

November 2 -- Part-Time Issues Subcommittee, Monday, November 2nd, 12 noon, Crake Meeting Room, University Club. All members are welcome. Contact person: Toni Roberts, troberts@mta.ca

October 30 -- Sabbaticals Subcommittee, Friday, October 30th, 3:30 pm, Avard Dixon, Room 117. All members are welcome. Contact person: Cordula Quint, cquint@mta.ca

October 29 -- Appointments Subcommittee, Thursday, October 29th, 3:30 pm, Dunn 406. All members are welcome. Contact person: Paul Berry, pberry@mta.ca

October 29 -- Intellectual Property Subcommittee, Thursday, October 29th, 2:30 pm, Dunn Room 406. All members are welcome. Contact person: David Fleming, dfleming@mta.ca

October 27 -- Childcare Subcommittee, Tuesday, October 27th, 3 pm, Dunn Room 111. All members are welcome. Contact person: Tim Reiffenstein, treiffen@mta.ca

October 27 -- Academic Freedom and Privacy Subcommittee, Tuesday, October 27th, 4 pm, Crabtree Room 223. All members are welcome. Contact person: Janine Rogers, jrogers@mta.ca

October 26 -- Heads Subcommittee, Monday, October 26th, 3 pm, Dunn Room 406. All members are welcome. Contact person: Tamara Small, tsmall@mta.ca