As you probably already know, our negotiating team is taking on a new approach to bargaining this time around - it’s referred to as "interest-based bargaining.”
Historically, we have engaged in conventional collective bargaining where we would focus on particular sections of the contract we believed needed to be improved or updated. Then we would present proposals and counterproposals and argue our positions until we reached a settlement that we could recommend to you for ratification.
Our new approach involves going through every article of the contract, line by line. Both parties engage in discussions rather than arguments as they express their views. As a result, some articles are signed off unchanged while others undergo minor or major changes. We are also attempting to correct typos and grammatical errors throughout the process.
So far, we have been meeting on a fairly regular schedule – every other week. The team also meets in between sessions to prepare for upcoming sessions. While we cannot disclose details due to the confidential nature of collective bargaining, we can say that we are moving at a respectable pace and hope to begin bargaining the economic portion of the contract fairly soon.
As always, we thank you for your support and patience and can assure you we are doing everything possible to bring you a fair and equitable contract as soon as possible.