The bargaining process starts six months before the expiry of the Collective Agreement. Members are asked for input; a bargaining meeting is held, and a bargaining team is elected. By law, unless the employer is willing to meet sooner, the earliest legal obligation for bargaining is the serving of notice four months before the expiry of the agreement. This time, we had our first bargaining session prior to the expiry of the agreement; however, beyond an exchange of proposals, there will be no formal response from the employer until our January bargaining session.

Unfortunately, we cannot dictate the availability of the Employer team, and the scheduling of bargaining becomes more complicated given the number of people involved on each bargaining team. Lastly, it appears the Employer has taken a wait-and-see approach, given they probably have to follow the lead of YG in the matter of Health Authority negotiations.

The Union will also need to be looking at bargaining a separate new agreement for the Health Authority and combining YG provisions with hospital provisions. All this will take time, so expect a longer-than-usual round of bargaining.