Joint Communiqué: CUASA and Carleton University engage in a new way forward!

CUASA and Carleton’s administration have signed a letter of understanding in which we have agreed to a stepped approach to collective bargaining prior to the 2012 expiry of our current Collective Agreement.

Both CUASA and the administration recognize that it is hard to find time at the bargaining table to deal with difficult and complex issues. Consequently, we have put aside some time before regular negotiations to try to address matters which are important to both the administration and CUASA’s members. With this in mind, we have agreed to engage in discussions facilitated by a mediator during the winter semester. We will use these facilitated meetings to discuss the principles underlying issues including workload, and tenure and promotion.

This stepped approach provides a better forum for both parties to explore such issues because, in addition to the presence of a third-party facilitator, the discussions are without prejudice or precedent. This enables us to improve our communications and to more fully understand one another’s perspective. After these stepped discussions are complete, we will continue with traditional bargaining where it is expected that proposals will be exchanged on changes to the collective agreement by both parties if applicable.  We hope this new approach will provide us with a solid foundation on which to improve our bargaining relations.

 

Dr. Sonya Lipsett-Rivera
Department of History
on behalf of the CUASA bargaining team

 

Dr. Jerry Tomberlin
Dean Sprott School of Business
on behalf of the  Management bargaining team