Hopes for a Quick Settlement of Canadian Faculty Strike Dashed
The negotiating teams of the Acadia University Faculty Association (AUFA) and Board of Governors met Wednesday evening at the Board’s request; however, the discussion was short lived.
“We are very disappointed with the Board’s most recent offer, as well as their decision to walk away from negotiations almost immediately after our team indicated that the offer was unacceptable,” said AUFA President Dr.. Peter Williams. “All along our wish has been to get back to the bargaining table. We took the invitation to restart negotiations two days into the strike as a hopeful sign that the Board was committed to ending the strike and moving forward. But their offer provided almost no significant change from the offer that our members overwhelmingly rejected in June and again in September. We think it is particularly unfair not just to our members but also to our students and their parents, to get people’s hopes up for what turned out to be an offer that was clearly not designed to negotiate an end to the strike.”
In their offer, the Board’s team did indicate that they were prepared to allow the word “equity” to appear in the contract. However, the financial package contained no improvements, and would increase inequities among faculty members. The Board offered to add a fourth year to the contract, but the lengthened contract would still see Acadia faculty salary grids fall further below regional averages. Acadia faculty salary grids are currently six percent below the average in Atlantic Canada, and about 20 percent below the national average.
Under the Board’s offer, Acadia would also remain the only university in Canada not providing its faculty with a dental plan.
At the heart of this most recent labor dispute is the union’s commitment to maintain the high quality of education Acadia University students receive. It believes that the integrity of academic programs at the university will erode should faculty complement be reduced and compensation for its members fail to move towards to regional and national norms, as was promised by Acadia’s President, Dr. Gail Dinter-Gottlieb, in 2004. Treatment of part-time faculty, librarians, and instructors is also a sticking point. Acadia ranks 3rd overall amongst 21 small, primarily undergraduate universities in the annual MacLean’s university report card. However, when the average income for all ranks of faculty in the same universities is compared, Acadia comes second to last. While providing an education that is one of the best available in Canada, Acadia’s professors are amongst the most poorly compensated.
Support for the Faculty Association has been coming in from numerous sources. Over 100 Acadia students participated in a student organized march to support striking faculty on the morning of October 18th. Accompanied by a police escort, students marched along Wolfville’s main street waving placards and chanting slogans. On Friday morning flying pickets from across Canada will show their support for the AUFA, joining its members on the picket line.
