UNB / AUNBT Negotiations
Collective Bargaining
The University of New Brunswick (UNB) and the Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers (AUNBT) are negotiating a collective agreement regarding the employment of the university’s full time faculty, researchers, and librarians. Both parties have agreed to a media blackout to ensure all negotiations happen at the bargaining table.
The students of the University of New Brunswick have full right to be aware of the process of the deliberations and any possibilities of classrooms being shut down. The UNB Student Union has been keeping in active contact with both parties to stay informed and pass along all available information to students. As changes and progress happen in negotiations, please feel free to come back to this site for updates from the third party organization that represents you.
The Story So Far
A four year collective agreement was reached in 2006 to which outlined the employment agreement between UNB and AUNBT. This document expired in 2009. Both parties entered negotiations in June of 2009 to create the next collective agreement to span the next five years. Both UNB and AUNBT selected a collective bargaining team to discuss needs and priorities in the next collective agreement. These teams were unable to reach a final agreement by the end of 2009 and sought external help in negotiations in early January.
On January 8th, 2010, both UNB and AUNBT applied to the provincial government’s Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training, and Labour seeking an official conciliator to help resolve the outstanding issues not yet agreed upon. The government conciliation began on January 21st, 2010.
The conciliation ended on February 3rd, 2010 with outstanding issues still not resolved. The conciliator of the government filed a report on the process, presented to the Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour. From reception of the report, the Minister has fifteen (15) days to make a decision on what comes next. The deadline is roughly February 18th.
The Current State of Negotiations
The Minister of Labour has decided require a Conciliation Board to facilitate further negotiations. The decision was release on February 18th, 2010.
A Conciliation Board means that both UNB and AUNBT will appoint one member to carry on more negotiations. These two people will agree upon a third party to help complete negotiations with them. There is no indication yet as to when this will start or for how long it can last.
This lessens the risk of a labour dispute reaching a strike or lock out for now. Never hesitate to check back here or contact the Student Union with questions. The President, Jon, can be reached at suprez@unb.ca.
Has this happened before?
It is important to note that UNB and AUNBT negotiations have never reached a point that required a lockout or strike. Most recently, the 2005-06 negotiations resulted in AUNBT’s Collective Bargaining Council agreeing to call a strike vote (though no strike vote was ever called).
What about Part-Time Faculty?
Many members of the UNB community include our part-time faculty members. This group has never been covered by any form of a collective agreement. As such, part-time faculty are having negotiations at the same time as AUNBT, which represents full time faculty, researchers, and librarians. The part-time faculty are at the point of government conciliations and the UNB Student Union will be updating you as more is known.
