RAAS Ratifies its First Collective Agreement

On February 5, 2021, members of the Renison Association of Academic Staff (RAAS) voted overwhelmingly (97%) in favour of ratifying the tentative agreement reached on December 16, 2020. The tentative agreement was reached after nearly two and half years of negotiations and over 45 bargaining sessions. The Board of Governors of Renison University College, affiliated with the University of Waterloo, ratified the tentative agreement in a unanimous vote on January 27, 2021.

RAAS was founded and its Constitution adopted by a large majority on February 12, 2018. It received certification under the Ontario Labour Relations Act on March 23, 2020, making it the official bargaining agent for all academic staff “holding tenure or tenure-track positions, continuing lecturer positions, professional librarians, and those having a limited duration contract, save and except academic staff employed on a sessional or a per-course basis, library assistants, non-credit academic staff, and administrators at the rank of Academic Dean, Vice-President or higher.”

The RAAS Executive, including Kristina Llewellyn (President and Acting Grievance Officer), Rob Case (Vice-President and Lead Negotiator) and Trish van Katwyk (Secretary-Treasurer) would like to thank all their colleagues in the bargaining unit for their solidarity through a long and difficult process. They would also like to thank their colleagues and counterparts at the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo (FAUW), the St. Jerome's University Academic Staff Association (SJU-ASA), the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), and the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) for so generously sharing their expertise, experience, and resources.