Bargaining for local collective agreements is now underway for post-secondary support staff, details are below.

An important note: If you haven't already done so, please provide our union with your personal contact information in the BCGEU Member Portal.

Negotiation status
When we last wrote to you on September 23, we had reached a tentative common collective agreement – the first ever – with the Post-Secondary Employers' Association (PSEA). Highlights of the agreement are outlined in our previous bulletin. 

Once ratified, that agreement will cover BCGEU members working in support services at seven of our employers: BC Institute of Technology, Coast Mountain College, Douglas College, Justice Institute of BC, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Northern Lights College, and Okanagan College. 

Before ratification voting of the common agreement can proceed, each of the above tables must reach a tentative local agreement. Bargaining has been scheduled for the following dates:

• BC Institute of Technology: January 25 and 27; February 6-7; February 23-24; February 27-March 3
• Coast Mountain College: January 16-20
• Douglas College: November 24-25; December 8 and December 14-16
• Justice Institute of BC: January 3-5, January 9-13, and January 16
• Kwantlen Polytechnic University: January 10-11 and January 13; February 1-3
• Northern Lights College: February 6-10
• Okanagan College: TBD (possibly January 2023)

We, your College and Institute Support Service Bargaining Association (CISSBA), will be meeting February 15-17, 2023 at the Fraser Valley BCGEU area office to continue coordinating across all units, share ideas and strategize on common issues.

When will ratification voting happen?
To demonstrate our solidarity with each other and to the employers, we have agreed to coordinate the timing of our ratification voting. It will take place when all seven tables have reached their tentative local agreements.

This means that ratification voting for both the common agreement and the local agreements will happen at the same time. Given scheduled bargaining dates, this will take place in 2023.

For a reminder of the bargaining process, review this infographic and this explainer video.

Why does bargaining take this long?
Local tables bargain local agreements that address issues specific to your institution. Many of these issues are significant and important, so they may take some time to try and resolve.

When will wage increases take affect?
Although a compensation package (under the 2022 PSEC Shared Recovery mandate) has been settled in the tentative common agreement, no wage increases will take effect until both the local and common agreements are ratified. When that happens, wage increases will be retroactively applied back to July 1, 2022.

Important: We need your personal contact info!
As bargaining proceeds, we will need to distribute more information to you that may not be appropriate to send through your employer-provided email address. Please ensure that we have your personal contact information by logging in to the BCGEU Member Portal here before your local table bargaining begins. Please encourage your coworkers to do the same.
 
In solidarity,
Your College and Institute Support Service Bargaining Association (CISSBA)

UWU/MoveUP