Welcome Back BBQ: We had a lot of fun at our BBQ to kick off the new semester. It was great to see so many members come together. Stay tuned for additional AASUA events throughout the fall!
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Air Canada pilots to receive raises of nearly 42% in four-year tentative agreement: The Globe and Mail
Read the full article here. As President Gordon Swaters noted on X, "it should not be a surprise that unions representing highly-skilled and internationally-mobile workers are successfully bargaining to regain wage equity with their peer comparators."
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Faculty unions are essential to the higher ed mission. And they're under threat: Inside Higher Ed
"Unions are essential to building strong, cohesive universities where research and critical thought thrive because professors and students are secure and protected ...
More recently, however, lengthy strikes, protracted negotiations, and anti-union conduct have become increasingly common not only in the United States but on the campus of McGill University in Canada. University administrators at McGill are fighting tooth and nail to kill all faculty unions, including its first, the Association of McGill Professors of Law."
Read the full opinion piece...
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Fighting precarity in post-secondary
Kristine Smitka, AASUA vice-president, and Negotiating Team Resource Person Kelly MacFarlane attended the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labour (COCAL) Conference this past August, an event centred on precarious workers in higher education. Smitka is pictured above in a panel presentation with Robert Soroka, President of Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA).
Smitka's presentation, "The Second Tier of Precarity," looked at University Administration’s exploitation of some of UAlberta’s most vulnerable academic staff members, and what actions unions can take to fight for justice.
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Administrative Professional Officers: A look back at bargaining
This is part of a seven-part series looking at the some of the incremental gains each AASUA constituency (employment category) has seen at the bargaining table over the years.
Administrative Professional Officers (APOs) are managers or other professionals on campus. They provide leadership, strategic advice, and direction in the organization; and are accountable for planning, negotiating, problem solving, risk assessment and prevention, and/or providing operational oversight of assigned university resources.
This document is a small taste of some of the improvements APOs have seen in recent years. It is designed to give members insight into how incremental change is reached at the bargaining table over time.
Continue reading...
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River Valley teachings
The AASUA acknowledges the generosity of our member, Dwayne Donald, who is a descendent of the amiskwaciwiyiniwak (Beaver Hills Cree) and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Education, for leading our members on a River Valley Walk on Sept. 4. Thirty-six AASUA members participated in the two-hour walk, where we deepened our understanding of the land that sustains us. This included learning of the 13 moons in the lunar calendar,
the Nêhiyawak pronunciation of the river that walks quickly (what in English we call the North Saskatchewan river), and the way in which Treaty 6 represents a sacred agreement among all living things, not just humans. This member-engagement activity marks a small step in our union’s efforts to decolonize our organization, and we want to thank our AASUA APO Councillor Cathie Crooks, who organized this wonderful learning opportunity. - Kristine Smitka
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ABOVE: AASUA Members on the River Valley Walk guided by Dwayne Donald.
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Attending NASA's International Workers' Day rally
Kristine Smitka, AASUA vice-president, shared with attendees at the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA) International Workers' Day rally on May 1 why she got involved with her union.
"I was frustrated by the growing casualization of academic work ... . by joining with my fellow workers, I became part of a collective movement to work towards concrete improvements," Smtika said.
Thank you to AASUA members who attended this important rally.
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AASUA supports Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL) as strike continues
VP Kristine Smitka and Defence Fund Member Rick Brick took to the picket line at McGill on Sept. 6 as AMPL resumed their strike. AASUA supported picketers last spring and summer, with Brick, Smitka, and President Gordon Swaters attending in support.
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