The university and a major campus union appear to be one step closer to a deal although none has yet been reached.

Chief negotiators for CUPE 3902 Unit 1, which represents teaching assistants and other academic staff, and Unit 3, which represents sessional lecturers and other non-student academic staff, say that university administration has made offers that include a pay increase without being offset elsewhere in the funding package.

The developments mean that the university has moved away from an earlier reported position that they were taking a hard line of a ‘net-zero’ increase in the total dollar value of any collective bargaining agreement, where any union gains in one area would need to be offset by give-backs in another.

The two units are negotiating separate collective bargaining agreements, although they share the same strike deadline.

According to the negotiators, the pay increases are slightly different in each of the two deals, although they both involve annual one per cent wage increases.

Ryan Culpepper, chief negotiator for Unit 1, says the latest developments are positive. “It’s a shame that it is coming this late in the bargaining process. This is the frame within which we normally bargain, and in which we should have been bargaining the whole last nine months,” he says.

Culpepper adds there is still much to negotiate before a deal can be made. “I still thinks it’s going to be extremely challenging — if it’s possible at all — to get a deal in the time that’s left,” he says.

Erin Black, co-chief negotiator for Unit 3, also confirmed that the university has made some movement on job security, which is Unit 3’s highest priority.

Unit 3 and the university have one final scheduled meeting date on Monday, February 9, and will attempt to make a deal in that session.

No further meetings have been scheduled, although Black says that Unit 3 will continue to request more dates if a deal is not reached in that session.

Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T director of media relations, declined comment, saying, “The University is focused on the bargaining process itself right now.”

“We are still three weeks from a strike deadline,” Black says, adding, “Absolutely, we want to continue to meet with the employer.”

A new meeting date has been added for Unit 1, bringing the current total to 4, on February 17, February 20, February 25, and February 26.

Culpepper says that Unit 1 is still willing to have, and has asked for, more meetings than those currently scheduled.