The Administrative and Supervisory Personnel Association (ASPA) held a public rally with the other labour unions on campus in the Bowl on the U of S campus on Monday October 26th at noon to welcome new President Peter Stoicheff and to ask him to send his team back to the negotiating table.
“We are here today to formally request that the new President send the University team back to the bargaining table after they have walked away from the process twice. Our near 1200 members have been without a contract since May of 2014,” said Dawn Giesbrecht, ASPA President.
The University walked away from the negotiating table for a second time during the Government Mandated Mediation at the end of September. ASPA has been without a collective agreement since May of 2014.
“TransformUS changed how the University deals with its staff, in a very negative way, and staff and faculty on campus all had hoped that we would have seen a change to that process over the last 17 months under the stewardship of Gordon Barnhart. Little to nothing has changed in that time, which is why we are here today, to make sure that a new President finally deals with this and to help mend the fences so we can work together to help rebuild this institution from the lingering trauma of TransformUS.” said Giesbrecht. “ASPA members want this institution to once again stand as a great pinnacle for post-secondary education in this country and the world, but we need to end this animosity that exists between the unions and administration of this institution to accomplish that. If we don’t work together we won’t see positive change.”
ASPA was joined and supported by other unions on campus, including the University of Saskatchewan Faculty Association (USFA), CUPE, PSAC and PAIRS, to send a positive message of change and respect for the negotiating process on campus and to welcome the new President.
The Administrative and Supervisory Personnel Association (ASPA) is a certified bargaining agent for a specific group of employees at the University of Saskatchewan. ASPA is made up of more than 1,000 members, who are involved in a wide variety of jobs on campus. These include administrative assistants, computer programmers, student counselors, coaches, project directors, veterinarians, research officers, family physicians, teachers for second language, etc.
ASPA (Administrative and Supervisory Personnel Association) 