Thread by @bryinlyin

college faculty, friends, allies: looks like another email just came down the chain from the CEC

the big reveal is: it's just more aggression

to be honest, this one confused me for a minute. luckily, there are some kind folks helping to keep me sorted! thanks for that!

anyhow,

what threw me off is that the CEC appears to finally be offering something the union has been calling for since last week: voluntary binding arbitration

this is a process where a arbitrator agreed upon by both parties is called in to help assemble the new collective agreement

arbitration can be useful when normal bargaining has reached an impasse but the parties involved want to avoid escalating the confrontation

the "binding" part means that the CEC and CAAT-A agree to accept abitrator's decisions

here's where things get tricky:

what CAAT-A has been calling for is a version of arbitration where the mediator hears arguments from both parties, then picks & chooses elements from all the proposals on the table to create the final agreement

there's a certain amount of risk in this -- the arbitrator could turn out to be strongly anti-union like the mediator OPSEU & CEC approved earlier in the bargaining process

in this case, though, the proposed party is William Kaplan, who was called in to finalize the *current* collective agreement after the province mandated striking faculty back to work in 2017

in other words, he's a known quantity to the CEC & CAAT-A, & accepted as neutral by both

the problem (there's always a problem with these CEC proposals; it's getting tiresome) is that what's on offer in this afternoon's letter is *ahem*

"Voluntary Binding Final Offer Selection Interest Arbitration"

in Final Offer Selection Interest Arbitration, the arbitrator doesn't incorporate proposals from both parties;

they simply pick one side's more recent offer, & that's the new collective agreement

in other words, what the CEC is proposing is basically a shootout between their draconian vision and CAAT-A's *incredibly reasonable* proposals

whoever wins gets everything; whoever loses, loses completely

what's so ominous about this proposal is that the CEC is willing to risk their *entire offer* to prevent CAAT-A from securing a single new benefit for faculty; a single step towards more accountable labor practices; a single intervention on an increasingly regressive status quo

this is how desperate management is to avoid compromise

why? to what end? i think it's because the CEC has bet their future on the stripped-down, insecure, underwaged, unaccountable vision laid out in their proposals

voluntary binding arbitration IS a viable path forward, but only if it happens in the spirit of compromise that defines healthy collective bargaining

today's "offer" from the CEC has the sheen of cooperation, but the devil's in the details, & boy is the devil in the details

tired of management propaganda flooding your inbox? now's a great time to write your college president, write the CEC, & write your administrators!

let them know you won't accept backhanded gestures of compromise. let them know you support faculty & fair, meaningful bargaining