AASUA

Dear Colleagues, 

AASUA met with the Employer again on February 6 for a joint bargaining session. 

There, the Employer presented a disappointing and unreasonable response to our monetary proposal which, in addition to hardly moving off their initial offer, offered a different salary increase for faculty — an increase 2% greater than their offer for all other academic staff. In the four-year proposal they presented, the Employer offered 3% pay increases for faculty in the first and second years, with 2% increases in the third and fourth years. The employer offered all other constituency groups 2% annual increases each year over four years. 

This proposal is a non-starter for AASUA. All academic staff at our university make significant contributions to ensure that our university runs effectively and provides internationally-recognized excellence in teaching and research, and accordingly ALL of our academic staff deserve fair compensation.

Our position as a top-four university has been won through years of hard work but this status is at risk of being eroded by years and years of non-competitive compensation. We refuse to let the Employer continue to put our world-class university in jeopardy. Our Employer needs to get serious about catching up to our comparators, or we will continue to fall behind. One does not need a PhD in economics to understand that what the Employer is offering disincentivizes both the recruitment and retention of top candidates to our academic staff complement.

Print a sign to support your bargaining team

Here is the good news: we always knew the road ahead would be difficult, and we are prepared to do everything in our power to bargain for a fair deal for academic staff at this university. 

To show your support for your bargaining team, please view and print the downloadable “I support my bargaining team” AASUA signs here: 

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• The Employer rejected AASUA’s other monetary proposals, including proposals to:
  • Add two additional steps for all salary scales that are currently capped to adequately recognize the achievements and excellent work of academic staff;
  • Abolish the two-tiered salary system within Academic Teaching Staff (ATS) that was very reluctantly agreed to in the last round of bargaining, and to transition the ATS salary scale to a more equitable positioning with the Faculty Service Officer constituency;
  • Maintain the current academic benefits plan and ensure its adequate funding, and expand it to include all AASUA members that hold at least a 0.4 full-time-equivalent (FTE) appointment;
  • Expand Professional Expense Reimbursement to all part-time members of the Association, pro-rated to their FTE; and
  • Change the Academic Supplementary Retirement Plan to ensure the benefit remains stable and appropriate for eligible members in the future. 
• AASUA presented a proposed Memorandum of Agreement to outline the process wherein AASUA and the Employer will take the use of student surveys for the evaluation of teaching and increment determination to arbitration. In November, the parties agreed (subject to ratification of the Collective Agreement) to take the issue to arbitration to decide whether the practice is unlawful due to the well-documented discriminatory-effect of these surveys. It is AASUA’s position that the use of subjective student surveys in evaluation violates human rights legislation as a result of their discriminatory impact on individuals with characteristics protected by such legislation. 
• The Employer again rejected AASUA’s proposed article to respond to emerging changes to university operations (Article 24), which includes protections for both the contracting out of positions and technological change related to Artificial Intelligence. 
• The Employer again rejected AASUA’s proposal for increased job security and conversion for Academic Teaching Staff (ATS) who hold short-term, discretionary Term appointments. 
  
  

AASUA will again meet with the Employer on February 27. 

Sincerely, 

Gordon Swaters
AASUA President