Dalhousie University gives a lock -out notification to the faculty association
Dalhousie University will lock up the members of the Faculty Association from Wednesday morning, but the university says that students are still planning to arrive at the campus at the start of the autumn period.
The university’s board and the Dalhousie Faculty of Association have been unable to reach a contract agreement through negotiations and mediation in recent months. The previous collective agreement expired on 30 June.
The association represents nearly 1,000 professors, instructors, librarians and professional counselors at the largest university in Nova Scotia.
After the last mediation meeting on 11 August, the union said it would do it Bring the final offer from the university to its membership For a vote that would end at the earliest on August 21, although it said that the deadline could be expanded.
In a statement issued to the university community on Monday morning, Dalhousie -President Kim Brooks said that the Lockout starts on Wednesday at 9.30 am, unless a collective agreement is reached.
“There is still time to prevent a lockout, and I remain hopeful that we can reach an agreement,” says the statement.
Brooks asked DFA President David Westwood to close the voting period by the end of last week, but she did not receive a word of a completed mood, says the statement.
“The DFA leadership has the efforts to resolve this issue before the autumn period starts,” reads an update on the university website.
“The impasse is important enough that a disruption has become inevitable,” says the update. “If so, it is better for the university to make it happen now, in August, instead of starting after the autumn period, if the consequences would be much more serious for students.”
What the lockout means for the fall period
Dalhousie campuses remain open, regardless of the work situation, says the university.
Students must be planning to arrive before the autumn period as usual. Homes and dining rooms will be open and the orientation activities will continue as planned. The fall period is planned to start 2 September.
All classes given by DFA members are suspended until the dispute is resolved. “This would affect most, but not all, classes in dallhousia,” A FAQ on the Dal website say.
If a resolution of the dispute is not reached before the autumn classes begin, the university says that it is planning to inform students about which courses will continue and which are suspended.
The Lockout would also influence some classes and programs at the University of King’s College, says the FAQ.
With regard to the summer courses, the university says that “there are contingency plans for courses that are not completed”, and students receive more information from their faculties.
Wages are an important problem
The most important bottleneck in the negotiations has been wages. The university says that every year it has offered an increase of two percent during the three -year term of the proposed contract.
The DFAs Most recent negotiating update Says the most recent proposal included the increases of 3.75 percent, 4.75 percent and 5.75 percent for the three years, for a total of 14.25 percent.
An earlier proposal from the Board of Directors to reduce the percentage of education work at the university that is done by DFA members instead of session employees or managers were taken from the table during the negotiations.
