Students can let out a collective sigh of relief for another week, as NAIT’s Academic Staff Association (NASA) has extended the deadline to sign a collective agreement from Jan. 30 until Feb. 7. Here’s what’s happened so far.
Jan. 14 and 15: Academic Staff support strike with successful vote
On Jan. 14 and 15, NASA held a successful strike vote, with 83 per cent of voting members saying “yes” to a strike. NASA President Shauna MacDonald called the results a “collective statement” in an email to members.
This vote gives NASA 120 days to call a strike with 72-hours’ notice.
Jan. 16: NAIT’s Board of Governors pass lockout vote
At an emergency NAIT Board of Governors meeting, the Board passed a motion to “delegate the President and CEO the authority to initiate lockout action with respect to the Bargaining, including the authority to take any steps required to initiate such lockout action.”
The board chair emphasized that NAIT wants to continue bargaining with the assistance of a mediator and minimize any interruptions to learning.
Jan. 19: NAIT and NASA return to bargaining, NASA sets Jan. 30 deadline for signed agreement
With the assistance of a mediator, NAIT and NASA returned to the table to continue discussing a new collective agreement. But to “maintain the momentum created by the strike mandate,” NASA set a deadline to sign of Jan. 30. President Shauna MacDonald called it a “definite” deadline, saying that if no agreement was signed by then, the NASA executive team would have a “very serious conversation.”
Jan. 26: Progress being made, but bargaining stalls on topic of instructional assistants
Both parties say they made significant progress on multiple topics, but negotiations fell apart on the topic of Instructional Assistant IIs — a type of support staff that can deliver technical lessons, but not theory-based ones.
NAIT said that NASA was “unwilling to engage in further discussion” regarding NAIT’s IA2 proposal, and NASA said in their Jan. 26 update that NAIT’s actions show that “they are committed to increasing the roles and usage of I.A 2s.”
Jan. 29: Mediation resumes, NASA extends bargaining deadline to Feb. 7
Both parties agree to continue mediation with a new mediator. Three mediation dates are set: Feb. 2, Feb. 4 and Feb. 7. NASA has now said Feb. 7 is their new deadline to sign an agreement. Their executive team has “authorized the issuance of a 72-hour strike notice if it becomes necessary,” but chose not to issue strike notice and instead continue bargaining.
Both parties still say they are committed to signing a new agreement.
Readers can visit the Collective Bargaining section under News to read all collective bargaining-related articles the Nugget has published to date.
Feature image by Noura Eltinay
