Conciliation
Up until August 25th, 2011, the Bargaining Teams were working with an Early Intervention Mediation/Facilitator from the Ministry of Labour. On August 25th, it was apparent that the Administration was not willing to move further on some key non-monetary issues introduced by both sides. WUFA's efforts to obtain greater employment security for long-term Sessionals has been unsuccessful. And all of the University's proposals for profound monetary concessions remain on the table. Given the lack of any signicant resolutions to date, and the extreme nature of the Administration's concessionary proposals, the Faculty Association's team had no choice but to file for conciliation.
At any time during the mediation process, either party can request that the MOL appoint a conciliator and the mediation then becomes what is formally referred to as conciliation. While the conciliator’s role is essentially the same as the mediator, conciliation is required under the law before any job action can be taken by either side. As such, the critical difference between mediation and conciliation is that if either side decides to end the conciliation process at any time, or the conciliator decides on her/his own, the conciliator will normally recommend what is called a “no board” report, and 17 days after that we are in a legal strike or lockout situation. While this does not mean that job action necessarily occurs at the end of the 17 days, the clock is clearly ticking much more loudly when a no board report is issued. Even after a no board report is issued, the parties can request that the Ministry of Labour appoint what we can call a “post conciliation mediator” (PCM) to continue working with the parties. This can continue even during a strike or lock out until an agreement is reached, but again like the EIM and unlike the conciliation, PCM is optional.
