On October 18, the day after mediation between the APUO and the University, the Central Administration sent a communication to all uOttawa employees about “the status of the collective bargaining process with the APUO.”
This communication is not only misleading about the state of negotiations, but also, within the context of ongoing mediation, considered by the APUO as a breach of good faith bargaining practices. As a result, the APUO Executive has just filed a bad faith bargaining complaint to the Ontario Labour Relations Board. This is the first time the APUO has filed such a complaint since the difficult bargaining round of 2013.
Prior to mediation, the parties had agreed to 22 proposals1, the majority being Employer proposals, and no proposal directly impacts our key priorities of high-quality education and research, governance, and workload. Our key priorities, as identified by you, the Members, remain on the table.
We cannot and will not finalize a collective agreement that does not include strong measures to address these priorities.
As stated in our fourth bargaining update, we will be moving forward with conciliation on November 5 and 6.
1. Please note that any proposals for which the parties have agreed to will only be formalized upon ratification by APUO Members, and the signing of a complete Collective Agreement package.