Both the university and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Local 901, Unit 1 have ratified a renewal collective agreement for graduate teaching assistants and teaching fellows at Queen’s.

The parties began negotiations in late April 2013 and reached a tentative agreement on November 25, 2013. PSAC held a ratification vote for its members over the course of meetings that occurred on December 12 and 13 and the university’s Board of Trustees ratified the agreement on Wednesday, December 18.

“The parties were able to achieve this agreement in a fairly efficient fashion,” says Dan Bradshaw, Associate Vice-Principal (Faculty Relations). “I think this reflects the efforts of the party at the negotiating table and the solid foundation of the first agreement that the parties negotiated back in 2011.

The collective agreement runs from May 1, 2013 to April 30, 2017. It provides for one-time-only payments of $83 per member in each of years 1 and 2 of the agreement, and general increases to wages (teaching assistants) and stipends (teaching fellows) of 1.75 per cent and 2.0 per cent in years 3 and 4.

The collective agreement will be posted to the Faculty Relations and Human Resources webpages in the near future.