Faculty at Mount Saint Vincent University ready to strike Monday
The full-time faculty at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax are ready to take to a picket line at noon on Monday unless a tentative agreement is reached.
The faculty association (MSVUFA) says it is seeking a fair and equitable settlement to ensure parity with other Nova Scotia and regional universities and to advance decolonizing and equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility (EDIA) efforts.
Association president Susan Brigham said she informed provincial Labour Minister Jill Balser and university president Joel Dickinson on Wednesday about the potential strike.
The MSVUFA represents 160 full-time faculty, librarians and lab instructors, 97 per cent of whom supported strike action during a secret December strike vote.
On Jan. 25, the association and the employer, the university’s board of governors, failed to reach a collective agreement after a third day of conciliation.
The association news release said it is deeply disappointing that the board does not adhere to the university’s core mission, in which it promotes itself as a champion for social justice that has been challenging the status quo since 1873.
The MSVUFA says the board is failing to live up to its mission values within its own community, specifically full-time faculty, librarian and lab instructor employees, and especially students, who will be most adversely affected by the employer’s unwillingness to reach an equitable settlement.
“While the strike looms large, the MSVUFA bargaining team is continuing negotiations with the employer and will do so until there is a new collective agreement,” lead negotiator Genevieve Boulet said.
