Bargaining Updates

This round of contract negotiations, our 19^th with the employer, began in September 2022. Yet the work of arriving at a Collective Agreement (CA) started well before we sat down at the table in the Fall. Below, President Colin Jones gives an outline of the process to this point, including a detailed accounting of the provincial context for bargaining.

Our Timeline

One year before expiry of our last CA, June 30, 2021, the FSA’s Board of Directors appoints our Chief Negotiator & Collective Agreement Committee (CAC). The latter is a group that has been involved for a year and a half, consisting of Bhaveena Goradia, Fraser Robertson, Kenzie Woodbridge, Lisa Allen (who has since left BCIT), Mae Sagar, Terry Gordon, Thomas Lane, Trish Albino, Zaa Joseph, Maria Angerilli, and Michael Conlon.

Fall 2021, we begin the 12-month process of researching other CA’s, reviewing FSA documents that outline the wants and needs of our staff as well as community consultation–leading ultimately to the development of our proposals.

The Fall is also around the time we expect to receive the provincial mandate outlining the framework or template for this round of bargaining. This will, however, take around another year to be established.

The CAC conducts our member bargaining survey, adding another layer of data on top of our existing research.

In January 2022, our Board appoints the FSA Bargaining Team and endorses our bargaining themes. These themes go to the membership at the January 2022 GM and receive unanimous support.

April 27, the BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) main table, which represents Liquor and Cannabis Distribution, declares an impasse—the first step toward job action.

May 31, the FSA delivers to management our Notice to Bargain, setting the stage for Round 19 negotiations to begin.

June 22, BCGEU strike vote concludes with 94% of participants voting in favour.

August 15, the BCGEU takes four distribution centres across BC out on strike. Terry, Matt, Michael and Colin, join the Delta line in support.

Sept 7, BCGEU and HEU send tentative agreements to their memberships, eventually ratified, that form the template for bargaining this round in BC – “the mandate” or, more officially, the “2022 Shared Recovery Mandate.”

The provincial government’s mandate covers a three-year contract term, beginning in 2022, with wage gains averaging, at minimum, well over 3% annually.

• Year 1 – a flat increase of $0.25/hour (which provides a greater percentage increase for lower paid employees) plus 3.24%
• Year 2 – 5.5% plus a potential Cost of Living Adjustment to a maximum of 6.75%
• Year 3 – 2% plus a potential Cost of Living Adjustment to a maximum of 3%
• A negotiable Flexibility Allocation of up to 0.25% in years 1 and 2 to support mutually beneficial outcomes for both parties

September 28 and 29, our first days of bargaining this round. We table our non-monetary package, including around 30 proposals, not counting non-substantive, housekeeping items. BCIT tables about 35 substantive proposals.

November 9 and 10, we reconvene at the table and then for a week in early December.

In mid-January 2023 we have two more days of bargaining, in which we give our monetary proposals to management.

To date, we have spent 9 days at the table.

When will bargaining be done?

Last round, negotiations took 36 days, including the Quad agreement and side tables.  If you eliminate that time, it was about 25 days we spent in bargaining.

The 2019 round was 22 days

2010 was 18 days.

Averaging it out, it takes about 22 days, recently, to complete bargaining.

We’re now nine days into bargaining this round, about halfway to the recent historical average.

Colin Jones
Chief Negotiator, BCITFSA