Dear UTFA colleagues,
As the academic term and calendar year draw to a close, we are writing with an update on bargaining and an invitation to complete a brief bargaining survey on your priorities for the upcoming round. (The survey will remain open until January 9th, 2026.)
On November 28, 2025, UTFA presented the senior Administration with our notice to bargain salary, benefits, and workload for the period July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027.
UTFA’s approach to bargaining for this round will be to insist that the Administration adhere to the expedited process outlined in Article 6 of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), with either a bilateral agreement or a final and binding arbitrator’s decision on all bargaining items no later than June 30, 2026.
We have acted in good faith throughout the last several rounds of bargaining to ensure a speedy delivery of outcomes to UTFA members. Too often, the Administration has not reciprocated. In the latest example, UTFA asked the Administration to agree to allow Arbitrator Gedalof to issue a “bottom line” decision on salary increases for the July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, period (with reasons to follow) so that UTFA members could be paid their salary increases in a timely fashion and so that UTFA could begin the next round of bargaining in an informed way. The Administration refused.
As we detailed in our September 24 bargaining update, UTFA recently became aware of the Administration’s practice of withholding retroactive payments for faculty members and librarians who are no longer employed or are deceased. We are challenging this, and the unfair practice of withholding ATB increases from UTFA members in their first year of hire. Even when retroactivity is paid, our salary improvements have not historically included interest. Lastly, benefit improvements are seldom retroactive. It is clear that the Administration benefits from any delays in bargaining, and they disproportionately and negatively impact UTFA members.
As a result, UTFA has no choice but to enforce the timely resolution of bargaining under the MOA to ensure salary increases and benefit improvements for current and future UTFA members are implemented at the earliest opportunity.
With the first bargaining dates on the horizon in January, what matters most is the voices of all UTFA members. As UTFA’s leadership, we need our members’ assistance to assemble UTFA’s core bargaining priorities. To that end, we have included a link to a member bargaining survey that will inform the UTFA bargaining team's proposals for improving the terms and conditions of your work in 2026.
Important reminder: the member bargaining survey will be open for completion from December 17, 2025, to January 9, 2026.
Your input will be critical in shaping the upcoming round of bargaining. We hope you can complete the member bargaining survey at the earliest opportunity. We understand this is a busy time of year, and we will be sending out a second (reminder) email to complete the survey prior to the January 9, 2026, deadline.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Finally, we wish you and all UTFA members a restful holiday season and a happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Terezia Zorić
UTFA President and Co-chief Negotiator
Jun Nogami
UTFA Vice-President, Salary, Benefits, Pensions and Workload and Co-chief Negotiator