At the recent Labour Relations Board (LRB) hearing, APSA and
SFU were surprised to hear the number of APSA positions CUPE was seeking had changed.
CUPE’s submission contained only approximately 70 of the
original 560 APSA positions they believed belong in the CUPE bargaining unit.
The raid of these 70 positions, the majority of them in IT
Services, would affect approximately 200 APSA members.
The dispute is over two core issues: the scope of CUPE’s
original certification and how “technical” positions are defined.
SFU argued Information Technology positions above a certain
grade level were never a part of CUPE’s certification and therefore cannot be
included in their bargaining unit now.
APSA, as an interested party, argued that technical
positions have never been represented by CUPE. Therefore, if those technical
positions were within CUPE’s certification, CUPE abandoned them.
Both SFU and APSA agree that if CUPE wants to include technical positions in its bargaining unit, they should organize them by contacting members directly to persuade them to join CUPE.
The LRB Chair is expected to make a ruling on the case by
the end of April.
Previous: February 2013 CUPE Challenge Update
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