On Jan. 17, 2025, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour has issued No Board Reports as efforts continue to reach agreements to renew the collective agreements between the university and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and its Local 229 (Tradespeople / Maintenance Workers and Caretakers / Custodians), Local 1302 (Library Technicians), and Local 254 (Lab Technicians).

On Jan. 10, 2025, the three CUPE locals requested the Ontario’s Ministry of Labour to issue No Board Reports.

No Board Reports are a normal feature of the labour relations process in the Province of Ontario. The No Board Reports, issued on Jan. 17, mean that members of the three CUPE locals bargaining with the university may legally strike, and the university may legally lock-out the employees in those bargaining units, at 12:01 am on Feb. 3, 2025.  This does not mean a work stoppage will necessarily occur on or after that date.

The parties continue to have a duty to bargain in good faith and the university is committed to continuing to work with the union and its Locals in the interest of reaching an agreement.

The university has contingency plans in place to mitigate the impact of any potential job actions by these CUPE-represented support staff and will share that information with students, faculty and staff as appropriate. 

CUPE and the three locals each began their own rounds of bargaining with the university in the fall of 2024 in efforts to renew their collective agreements. The agreements all expired as of July 1, 2024.

The university values the contributions of its employees and respects the collective bargaining process. The university remains committed to continuing to work with the union in the interest of reaching these agreements. To that end the university has agreed to additional meeting dates in the coming weeks in the interest of securing collective agreements that can be ratified by the respective parties. Once tentative agreements are reached, the details will remain confidential until they are ratified by both parties.

More information concerning the collective bargaining process can be found in the Collective Bargaining FAQs.

This information as well as additional updates can be found on the university’s Labour News website. Labour News provides the Queen’s community with timely updates on the status of ongoing collective bargaining and related information.