UPEI Labour Relations Update—Conciliation between the University and Faculty Association ends
On April 21, 2022, the University began collective bargaining with the UPEI Faculty Association. It is the University’s goal to achieve a negotiated collective agreement that is fair to our valued faculty, sessional instructors, librarians, and clinical nursing instructors, and helps the University uphold its mission of providing outstanding learning opportunities to students and fulfill its commitment to the future.
As is a normal step in the bargaining process, on August 5, 2022, the UPEI Faculty Association (UPEI FA) advised the University that they had applied for the assistance of a government-appointed conciliator. Since then, the bargaining committees for the two parties have met 12 times with the aid of the conciliation officer. During these meetings, the University bargaining team has worked hard to modify its proposals to address the issues raised by UPEI FA. Progress has been made on key issues, such as EDI; however, a number of issues remain outstanding.
Yesterday, the conciliator advised the parties that conciliation has now ended and that she would file her report with the Government. The parties will await direction on the next steps, which could include mediation, or a cooling off period before the UPEI FA would be in a position to take a strike vote.
The University believes that conciliation has been very helpful and would welcome the continued intercession of independent third parties to help address the outstanding issues. We remain committed to working with the UPEI FA to negotiate a collective agreement.
We will continue to share information with the UPEI community by email. To see this and previous updates, please visit upei.ca/labour. If anyone has questions, please email labour@upei.ca.
