Bargaining Bulletin 4: You’ve gotta have (bad) faith

Hi friends,

As we are wrapping up the summer term and preparing for the boisterous fall term, it’s time to update you on the status of our contract negotiations.

As you may recall, in June, we tabled a one-year, wage-only package with a single item: a 3.6% general wage increase for all faculty. Given how far apart our respective visions for the College were, we felt this creative option allowed both sides to reset until December and give us more time to explore language that can help our members. The College did not provide a counter (and still has not), so we proceeded with binding arbitration under Clause 27.02 of our Collective Agreement.

1. The College didn’t like that.

As expected, rather than entertain our offer seriously and offer a counter, the Employer filed a Bad Faith bargaining complaint with the B.C. Labour Board on June 24. The Union views this as a delay tactic and fully anticipated it (as noted in my last bulletin). To respond, we enlisted the help of the law firm, Black Burke Mayor LLP, funded by the Federation of Post Secondary Educators (FPSE).

2. What’s bad faith for the goose is bad faith for the gander.

We obviously don’t agree we acted in bad faith. In fact, it’s far more likely the Employer did not come to the table with the intention of reaching a deal.

The Employer demanded many monetary concessions from the Union, but insisted it could not negotiate wage increases or other cost items until the large public sector unions had settled. How on earth are we supposed to negotiate freely if the other side admits it has no authority to bargain?

Put another way: if on day one we had accepted every single concession they demanded and abandoned all our proposals, we still wouldn’t have been able to sign a deal because the Employer—by its own admission—had no authority to agree to a deal.

That, in our view, is the very definition of bad faith. And that’s what we told the Board when we filed a complaint of our own.

3. Hurry up and wait.

This summer has largely been a back-and-forth of complaints and rebuttals between us and the Employer. Yesterday, we filed our final response to their final response (look, it’s been a summer, ok?), and we are very pleased with the case we’ve put forward.

Many different outcomes are possible: the Board could rule that we were in bad faith, that the Employer was in bad faith, both, or neither. It could suggest mediation. All of these outcomes and others we have not predicted will determine how our request for binding arbitration proceeds—to say nothing of how long it will take the Board to reach its decision, or what the bargaining climate will look like when we get there (BCGEU is on the verge of a major strike as we speak). This is a big, big case and the Labour Board is sure to proceed with caution. It could be ten months before we hear a decision—or it could be a few weeks.

But here’s what we do know: 

Whatever happens, the Employer knows we are not afraid to use every tool at our disposal to secure a fair deal. At worst, we’ll be back at the table bargaining the rights we know our members support. At best, we could change the way bargaining is done in British Columbia—for good.

It’s an exciting time to be doing this work, and we are so grateful for your trust and solidarity.