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• Your union enters collective bargaining to renegotiate your collective agreement, which sets key working conditions including salary.  
• The process of preparing for collective bargaining begins long before the expiry of the current agreement.  
• The AJC collects information from members, labour relations staff, the Governing Council, labour board and court decisions, other federal unions and previous bargaining rounds.  
• The AJC is also a member of the National Joint Council (NJC), where certain benefits such as health care and dental plans are negotiated separately.  
• The Governing Council appoints the Negotiations Committee responsible for bargaining with Treasury Board.  
• With the support of external legal counsel and in-house staff, the Negotiations Committee develops bargaining strategy, prepares proposals and consults members on bargaining priorities.
• Staff and other resources provide support, guidance and assistance to the Negotiations Committee throughout the process.  

Member input is the most critical step in determining the AJC’s collective bargaining priorities.

Members and Governing Council representatives are asked to provide input on bargaining priorities, including issues such as:

• leave provisions  
• work-life balance  
• salaries  
• other issues affecting working conditions  

The Negotiations Committee also reviews unresolved issues from previous bargaining rounds and emerging workplace issues stemming from grievances or at other bargaining tables. 

The parties to the collective agreement process operate under the terms of the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act. The AJC’s Governing Council approves the composition of the Negotiations Committee. The Negotiations Committee, led by the AJC’s president, is responsible for negotiating directly with the employer, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

The AJC is also a member of the National Joint Council (NJC) along with 18 other federal unions.  

The NJC complements collective bargaining by providing a forum for federal public service unions and employers to share information and consult, and to co-develop directives that address common issues, such as health and dental benefits, travel and more. 

While the Negotiations Committee negotiates the collective agreement, members decide whether to ratify the proposed collective agreement.

Once the Negotiations Committee has done the work to negotiate an agreement with the employer, the Committee recommends to the Governing Council that a membership vote be held to ratifythe proposed collective agreement. To ratify a collective agreement, the AJC’s bylaws require the approval of a majority of Regular Members’ votes cast in a regular membership vote. Information sessions on the proposed collective agreement are held and all Regular Members have the opportunity to vote on whether to accept the collective agreement.

The objective of collective bargaining is to achieve an agreement – but sometimes, disputes arise during the process. The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act requires a dispute resolution mechanism be selected at the outset of bargaining – either binding arbitration or conciliation. In binding arbitration, a neutral third party, such as an individual, board or panel, makes a final and binding decision on the dispute. In conciliation, mediation is used to settle disputes with an option for members to initiate a strike or other job action.  

The AJC’s Governing Council determines the dispute resolution mechanism in each round of collective bargaining. If conciliation or strike is selected as the dispute resolution mechanism, members decide through a vote whether or to not proceed with job action or strike.

In this round of bargaining, the AJC’s leadership selected binding arbitration as the dispute resolution mechanism.

Under the Terms of Reference approved by the Governing Council, the Negotiations Committee is responsible for:

• determining the AJC’s bargaining strategy;  
• identifying bargaining priorities;  
• attending bargaining sessions;  
• collecting bargaining information;  
• consulting members;  
• preparing bargaining proposals;  
• recommending ratification votes where appropriate.