Mary Beth Furanna, a mediator with the province’s Dispute Resolution Services, will meet with the negotiating teams for WLUFA and the Administration on Wednesday, June 15th in an attempt to reach an agreement in the negotiations for Contract Academic Staff and Part-time Librarians.
The teams have been meeting since September 2010 and spent four days with provincial conciliator John Miller in March and April before agreeing that nothing further could be accomplished through conciliation. WLUFA requested that the process move to mediation/arbitration, a commonly-used means for resolution of contract negotiations. The University rejected this proposal, but did agree to mediation. They subsequently requested a “no board report” from the Ontario Ministry of Labour and it was issued on June 1st.
WLUFA is hopeful that, with the help of Ms. Furanna, a settlement can be reached during the upcoming mediation session.