Since we took our strike vote and produced a powerful 91% mandate to strike, the Employer has insisted that we return to bargaining, suggesting they had substantially updated their position. In a gesture of good faith, TSSU scheduled a bargaining date today to receive their latest proposal before serving strike notice. The Employer’s proposal, however, was disappointing. They made two changes to their previous proposal: they are now offering a 2% wage increase in year three of the Collective Agreement instead of 1.99%—a whopping 0.01% increase from their previous position—and two years of an ill-defined learning and development fund. The update was insulting.
TSSU called out the Employer for wasting our time, nickel and diming wage increases, and offering a vague pro-d fund that we know from past experience would not materialize in a meaningful way. We also called out the lie in SFU’s bargaining update that they had already offered the “maximum allowable general wage increases” under the PSEC mandate. Clearly, they were holding out on us.
TSSU told the Employer that we would welcome more bargaining dates only if they are ready to substantively negotiate the fundamental issues. The Employer asked us to “dial down” our fight for a contract, but we plan to go on strike soon, as TSSU overwhelmingly voted to do.
The Employer is feeling the heat; we’re going to keep on grilling them.