To all APUO Members,
The APUO is pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with the employer to establish a timeline of negotiations that allows for more time to negotiate and a mediation process as originally suggested by APUO. Although the APUO has been publicly willing to bargain normally until at least the end of August, the employer’s decision to engage the formal conciliation process (see the previous Bargaining Bulletins for more details) unilaterally changed this possibility by creating a significantly curtailed bargaining timeline.
In this difficult context, this agreement establishes several important things. First, it ensures that conciliation begins on July 10th and 12th.. Second, it establishes that if we are unable to reach an agreement under these conditions by the beginning of August, the parties will participate in a weekend of mediation (with a mediator, i.e. a different person than the conciliator). Third, in order to ensure the best possible circumstances for negotiation, both parties have agreed to suspend their potential right of job action (lockout, strike, rewriting the collective agreement) until at least mediation has been completed (August 5th). The employer has also agreed to not make a request to the ministry for a vote on their last offer before Labour Day.
Although this agreement is not reflective of the timeline we initially considered to be the most constructive for bargaining, it is the best possible one under the difficult circumstances created by the employer. It does reinstate some stability and predictability in the process, which APUO believes to be conducive to a fair and equitable negotiated settlement.
Thank you for your continued engagement and support in the bargaining process.