First contract negotiations with four staff groups are either underway or in the planning stage.

Talks between the university and United Steelworkers Local 2010, the union representing general staff at Queen’s (grades 2-9), began in November. There have been 10 sessions to date with more scheduled later in January and throughout February. More meetings will be set for March and April.

The description of the bargaining unit and the status of a large number of disputed positions was clarified in November after months of mediation/arbitration. The status of each general support staff position in Grades 2-9 by area/department will be sent shortly to senior managers and administration.

United Steelworkers is also representing a new bargaining unit of academic assistants, tutors and markers. Talks began in August and are continuing.

Meetings with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), the union representing the Allied Health Care professionals in the Queen’s Family Health Team, will be starting later this month.

Finally, bargaining between the university and its post-doctoral follows, who are represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), is expected to begin within the next few months. Dates previously set for December 2011 were postponed following the departure of the union’s chief spokesperson. New dates are expected to be set in the near future.

Last year, six contracts were negotiated by the university and several employee groups.

New collective agreements were ratified in August with the Queen’s University Faculty Association and with the three campus locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Last June, the university and the Ontario Nurses Association ratified a first contract for the nurses in Queen’s Family Health Team, and last May, the university and PSAC agreed to a first contract for graduate teaching assistants and teaching fellows.