Friday, Feb. 9, 2:00 am
NEGOTIATIONS REACH AN IMPASSE
The team spent more than 12 hours at the table on Wednesday and has worked since 9:00 am on Thursday morning until now. Unfortunately, all our hard work has failed to result in an agreement. We remain at an impasse with the administration and we have requested a ‘no board report’ from the conciliator.
The administration still insists that we move to its position on the pension plan, increasing our contributions and weakening indexing, and has rejected our proposals on compensation. The administration has publicly stated its desire to compensate Laurier faculty on a competitive basis with faculty at other Ontario universities. Unfortunately, if WLUFA accepted the administration’s current offer, we would continue to be among the lowest paid academic staff in Ontario. This is at a time when the university has generated record surpluses.
The WLUFA team has worked hard to create a highly innovative article for professional teaching positions, but we have failed to reach an agreement on fair working conditions for these prospective Members.
The last compensation offer by the administration was derisory and left the team with no option but to seek a ‘no board’ report. We are certainly prepared to continue negotiations in mediation but we will need a strong strike vote to press for a satisfactory settlement. If you have not voted yet please support your team by doing so.
The ballot boxes at Brantford and the WLUFA office will close at 3pm today.
Bargaining unit meetings will be called as soon as possible next week.
Judy Bates, WLUFA President