Bargaining Updates – ASPA (Administrative and Supervisory Personnel Association)

Bargaining Update

Serving on your ASPA bargaining team is an honor and I thank you for the opportunity to represent our union’s members in pursuing a renewed collective bargaining agreement with USask.

Since this round of bargaining to renew our collective agreement began, we have focused on three primary areas.

I am very happy to report, and as you all know, the ASPA membership has voted to accept the tentative agreement with 92.5% in favour. I have personally heard from several ASPA members that they are very happy that we have settled this round of bargaining and in such a timely manner.

ASPA Collective Agreement Vote Results

The results of the vote for the new collective agreement are in and the membership voted 92.5% in favour of accepting the agreement so it has now been ratified by the membership. 978 members out of a possible 1317 participated in the vote which is a great participation rate and speaks to how engaged all of you were through this process and as I have said before, this sends a strong message to administration that you care about what happens at the university and will put ASPA in a strong position in the next round of bargaining. I want to thank all of you for your feedback during the information sessions and for those who emailed us throughout, we listened to all of you and while not everyone will be happy with the results your feedback will be taken into consideration by the executive when we enter the next round of bargaining in just over 18 months.

ASPA Bargaining Update

We are very pleased to announce that your bargaining team has reached a new tentative collective agreement with the University of Saskatchewan, subject to ratification by the membership. We will be presenting the details of this agreement to you very soon by online town halls and making the presentation with details of the agreement available online so that everyone has a chance to review and make an informed decision prior to the online voting period. The bargaining team is recommending a yes vote for this agreement.

Bargaining Update

This is just a note to update you on the employer’s application to the Labour Relations Board (LRB), for a forced vote on their final offer. We have not heard when the vote will take place. We have reached out to the LRB to see if they have an idea of when the vote will take place and have not heard back.

The ASPA Bargaining team is asking that members defeat the vote by voting no. The ramifications of a yes vote will impact the members of ASPA for many years to come. We need to send a strong message to the employer that Merit reform cannot happen without changes to the increment system.

Your ASPA Bargaining team went to the employer to bargain an agreement which recognizes both the needs of its members and the financial bind that the employer finds themselves in. The employer’s response to this is an attempt to use the uncertainty of these times and force a vote on an offer that will limit members ability to move in the salary range even more and hamper future bargaining teams from bargaining.

If you have not had a chance to review the material that ASPA has sent to you earlier in June, we would encourage you to review the bargaining updates on June 9 and June 10.

Lastly, we will certainly advise when we hear about the ballots being sent. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions. We can be reached at aspa@aspasask.ca.

Sent on behalf of the ASPA Bargaining Team

Dawn Giesbrecht, Co-Lead, Curtis Larson, ASPA President, Milan Bogunovic, Colleen Cochran, Graham Wisser, Hugh Wagner, Co-Lead, Darcy Hryn-Bird, ASPA Member Services Officer.

Bargaining Update

In order for you to have all the information that you need in which to make an informed decision on the upcoming vote, the ASPA Bargaining team is providing you with the following comparisons:

ASPA proposal to settle dated May 5 versus the Offer that the employer is asking you to vote on of May 7(A SPA FO vs Emp. FO)
Employer’s last offer versus what CUPE 1975 and USFA received in their last round of bargaining(ASPA CUPE USFA FO v3 Final)

We are hoping that these documents plus the one we sent yesterday will assist in further dialogue at the Zoom meetings being held today at 330 pm and on Friday, June 12 at 1030. Hoping that you can make one of these meetings. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at aspa@aspasask.ca if you have any questions. Also, don’t forget to follow the ASPA website the ASPA Advocate at www.aspasask.ca.

Sent on behalf of the ASPA Bargaining Team: Dawn Giesbrecht (Co-Lead), Curtis Larson (ASPA President), Colleen Cochran, Milan Bogunovic, Graham Wisser, Hugh Wagner (Co-Lead) and Darcy Hryn-Bird ASPA Member Services Officer

Bargaining Update

On June 5th the University of Saskatchewan sent you an infographic describing their bargaining offer to ASPA. That infographic is set out on the right-hand side of this document (Detailed Infographic). Compare the infographic representation to the employer’s “final offer” (on the left-hand side of this document)(Detailed Infographic) that U of S is compelling you to vote on in the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board (SLRB) supervised balloting process. ASPA believes that our members need to have all the facts so that when it comes time to vote that you will be able to make an informed decision. The ASPA bargaining team is not recommending acceptance of this proposal. We will be providing ASPA members with more information tomorrow. All documents will be discussed during the Zoom meetings held on Wednesday at 3:30 pm and Friday at 10:30 am. Please refer to the email sent to you yesterday for the details of accessing these meetings or reach out to us at aspa@aspasask.ca with questions.

Sent on Behalf of the ASPA Bargaining Team: Dawn Giesbrecht (Co-Lead), Curtis Larson (ASPA President), Collen Cochran, Milan Bogunovic, Graham Wisser, Hugh Wagner( Co-Lead) and Darcy Hryn-Bird (ASPA Member Services Officer)

Bargaining – Mediation/Conciliation Update

Dawn Giesbrecht, ASPA Co – Lead Negotiator

I am writing to update you on the status of ASPA and U of S collective agreement renewal bargaining which included mediation/conciliation meetings over the last three days; May 5, 6 and 7.

As you may already know, the employer declared an impasse in bargaining on March 5^th. This activated the requirement for mediation/conciliation under the Saskatchewan Employment Act and the Minister of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety appointed Mr. Kevin Eckert, Senior Labour Relations Officer, to work with both parties in an effort to find a bargaining settlement and end to the bargaining impasse.

Bargaining Update – Parties at an impasse

Bargaining Report from the ASPA Bargaining Committee March 5, 2020

Your ASPA Bargaining Committee began meeting with representatives of the U of S on October 31, 2019 in an effort to bargain the improvement and renewal of our collective agreement that expired on April 30, 2019.

ASPA approached the U of S in advance of the bargaining meetings to suggest an expedited process in which the two parties would focus on short lists of their key bargaining proposals. The purpose underlying this approach was to focus collective bargaining on reaching a timely settlement without the drama, delay and frustration of previous years.

U of S representatives agreed to the expedited bargaining approach proposed by ASPA. Accordingly, your bargaining committee brought forward a handful of proposals on key (mostly monetary) issues identified by ASPA members.

Bargaining Update

Hello ASPA members,

It has been just over two months since my last update. When I started writing this last week, we were heading into two more days of bargaining with the employer. I had hoped that I would be able to provide to you, our members, a very positive message. It had been my hope to be able to report to you that we are very close to an agreement. To be honest, we are nowhere near an agreement.