Postdoc bargaining negotiations timeline

Postdoc bargaining negotiations have been in motion since the end of 2021, which is probably longer than most postdocs have been postdocs for, so we've compiled a full timeline of events for anyone that's intereste

Please reach us at info@a-duress.ca if you'd like more information about any of this.

2021, November 1st: Notice to negotiate

PSAC issued Dalhousie University notice to bargain to indicate that postdocs wish to negotiate a new Collective Agreement.

2021, December 13th: Bargaining team elections

At a Union meeting, postdocs Matthew Stoyek (Department of Physiology and Biophysics), Robyn Wright (Department of Pharmacology) and Yu-Ting Chen (School of Occupational Therapy), as well as alternate Eric Pringle (Department of Microbiology and Immunology) were elected as bargaining team members to negotiate the new Collective Agreement. This will be negotiated with the help of Erin Sirett, our PSAC negotiator.

2021, December 31st: Our Collective Agreement Exired

2022, February-March: Training

Our bargaining team and interested members attended union training to learn big, open bargaining “Turning the Tables: Participation and Power in Negotiation”.

2022, February-September: Bargaining priorities surveys

The bargaining team and committee developed bargaining priorities surveys and started an outreach campaign with the goal of getting a majority of postdocs to fill it out. We collected 116 submissions from postdocs; there were 147 postdocs on the October 2022 list that we received from Dalhousie University.

2022, April: Bargaining team member changes

Due to changes in circumstances, Yu-Ting had to step down. In the coming months, postdoc Aditya Nar (Geriatric Medicine Research) replaced Yu-Ting as the third bargaining team member.

2022, June 13-14th: Meetings

The first bargaining team meetings were held to discuss changes to be made to the Collective Agreement based on the bargaining priority surveys.

2022, September 20th-October 12st: Ratification of proposals

Meetings were held where the bargaining team presented the bargaining proposals to postdocs, and then voting on these proposals took place online; 82 postdocs voted on the proposals, unanimously in favour.

2022, November 8th-9th: Bargaining with Dalhousie University

The first set of bargaining negotiations were held between the Dal admin and the postdoc bargaining team. Other postdocs were present in-between meetings with the Dal admin, in order to come up with any necessary changes to the proposals and to discuss these changes as a group.
The Dal admin bargaining team consists of Marlo Shinyei (Associate Director, Academic Staff Relations), Valerie Chappe (Associate Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Full Professor, Department of Physiology & Biophysics), Rachel Chang (Associate Professor, Department of Physics & Atmospheric Science, and Tier 2 CRC in Atmospheric Science), Miriam Breslow (HR Advisor, Human Resources), Britney Sears (HR Advisor, Human Resources) and Bobbi Bowering (Assistant Manager, Research & Special Purpose Accounting, Financial Services).
We tabled proposals around minimum contract length, notice of extension of contract, salary protection, travel expenses, probationary period, performance evaluations, health insurance coverage for international postdocs and professional development.
While there were several productive conversations with the Dal admin team, we were left feeling frustrated and disappointed by Dalhousie’s lack of willingness to address the problems we are facing as postdocs. Dalhousie’s bargaining team repeatedly told us that we are highly-skilled, junior academics who are valued by University, however, we did not see this reflected in their response to our proposals.
You can read the full update we sent out to members here.

2022, January 17th and 18th: Bargaining with Dalhousie University

The second set of bargaining meet were held between the Dal admin and the postdoc bargaining team; all postdocs were invited to watch the negotiations in-person if they wanted/were able to, and to discuss the proposals between meetings again.
On the first day of negotiations, 5 additional postdocs came to watch the bargaining and the Dal admin team left the room after 10 minutes - claiming that their “psychological safety” was threatened by the additional postdocs - and refused to meet with us face-to-face. For the remainder of the negotiations, they only sent their lead negotiator and - after we presented our proposals to their lead negotiator - would only discuss any of the proposals via email.
On the second day, the University’s negotiator insinuated that our negotiator, Erin, was creating a hostile environment and that we would be better off without her. This was highly inappropriate and manipulative, and PSAC’s lawyers filed an Unfair Labour Practice in response, on our behalf.
During these negotiations, we compromised on our proposals on contract length, notice period for a contract extension and on the notice required when the university wants to terminate a postdoc’s contract early. But the university did not shown the same willingness to compromise. Their counter proposals either proposed to keep what we already have in our collective agreement or proposed slight changes but that don’t address the problems.
In the initial round of bargaining, the University’s representatives told us we were “highly skilled, junior academics”, but in this round said that the entirety of a Postdoctoral Fellowship is a “training opportunity”. Whichever justifies not giving postdocs the improvements to our working conditions that we’re asking for at the time, seems to be the University’s response, but they can’t have it both ways.
You can read the full update we sent out to members here.

2022, January: Dal requests conciliation

The Dal admin requested conciliation from the Nova Scotia Labour Board because of the presence of the additional postdocs, as mentioned above.
Conciliation is a process in the labour law where the Ministry of Labour appoints a conciliator to assist the parties in reaching an agreement.

2022, January 19th: Meeting

Negotiations strategy meeting for all postdocs.

2022, January 25th-March 3rd: Ratification of monetary proposals

Meetings were held where the bargaining team presented the bargaining proposals to postdocs, and then voting on these proposals took place online; 75 postdocs voted on the proposals, 74 in favour.

2022, February 22nd: Meeting

A meeting was held for all postdocs where the monetary proposals were presented and there were updates on the majority petition and conciliation; at this meeting some postdocs suggested that the minimum salary set out in the proposals was not high enough, so we increased it in line with their suggestions. Online voting was left open after the meeting and all postdocs that voted, voted in favour of ratifying the proposals.

2023, February 28th: Majority petition delivery

A petition was delivered to the acting Dal Provost, Kim Brooks, that was signed by 73% of active postdocs and showed that postdocs support what is being asked for in negotiations.

2023, March 6th-7th: Conciliation with Dalhousie University

The third set of negotiation meetings took place in the form of conciliation with the Nova Scotia Labour Board and Dal admin.
During this set of meetings, the NS Labour Board conciliator went between two rooms, one with the Dal admin team and one with the postdoc negotiations team, presenting the other parties latest proposals. This obviously slowed down negotiations dramatically, and we do not know whether the rationale behind some of our proposals was presented to the University team as we would have done.
We advocated for some of the previously identified bargaining priorities, in particular those regarding job security, and also presented our proposals on pay and health benefits. The Dal admin came back with proposals of no pay increases at all in 2022 or 2023, and a pathetic increase to the minimum salary from $38,500 to $40,000 in 2024 and 2025. They proposed 0% yearly inflation adjustments for postdocs earning above the minimum salary. This equates to a real terms pay cut of 15.6%. Their reasoning was that some other Universities have even lower minimum salaries, but why does this need to be a race to the bottom?
You can read the full update we sent out to members here.

2023, summer: Meetings, changes, petitions

Aditya Nar accepted a postdoctoral scholarship - congrats Adi! - and is no longer a postdoctoral fellow employee. He stepped down from the bargaining team. Postdoc Val Webber (School of Health and Human Performance) has attended all bargaining sessions since they became a postdoc and stepped up onto the bargaining team.
Several meetings were held to update postdocs on the current state of bargaining and give an opportunity for them to ask questions.
Postdoc photos were collected for a photo petition showing that a majority of postdocs support the bargaining team.

2023, September 13th: Meeting

A drop-in session was held for postdocs wanting to find out more about where the bargaining process is currently at and what they can do to help.

2023, September 20th: Photo petition delivery

Several postdocs delivered the photo petition to the office of Dal President, Kim Brooks. This demonstrated that postdocs are united in their demand to be treated fairly in bargaining, and we called on the President to issue a mandate to the admin bargaining team to come to a fair agreement. This was signed by 75% of active postdocs.
A press conference was held with Robyn Wright (bargaining team member and Co-President of Local 86001), Val Webber (bargaining team member and Secretary of Local 86001), Chris Di Liberatore (PSAC Regional Executive Vice President), David Westwood (Dal Faculty Association President) and Cameron Ells (CUPE 3912 President). We spoke about the current state of bargaining and both David Westwood and Cameron Ells spoke in strong support of Dal postdocs. You can see a summary of the press conference here, and watch the whole thing here.

2023, September 21st-22nd: Conciliation with Dalhousie University

The fourth set of negotiation meetings took place in the form of conciliation with the Nova Scotia Labour Board and Dal admin.
The University had appointed a new lead negotiator, Laura Neals (Director of Academic Staff Relations, Dalhousie University), and we also had a different Nova Scotia Labour Board conciliator.
The Dal admin team agreed to come back to face-to-face meetings with us, and while we were ultimately unable to reach an agreement, we did feel that face-to-face discussions were a much more productive way of meeting and did allow small issues, semantics or potential misunderstandings to be ironed out immediately.
While we were able to come to tentative agreements on several issues, we compromised on others in order to focus all efforts on increasing the minimum salary, which is currently well below a living wage in Halifax. The Dal admin team did not extend the same courtesy, refusing to even raise the minimum salary somewhere close to a living wage, and we are now at impasse.

Postdoc bargaining negotiations timeline

This website uses cookies.