Professors at Vancouver Island University are manning pickets instead of teaching classes as of Thursday (March 10).
The Vancouver Island University Faculty Association announced Tuesday that negotiations with university administration had failed, one day after a B.C. Labour Relations Board mediator was brought in.
The university’s 550 professors were poised to walk out of classrooms today at 8 a.m. if no agreement was reached after the News Bulletin’s deadline.
At about noon Wednesday, the union asked the university to return to the bargaining table, but no progress was made.
The strike is the first time in the university’s history faculty have taken strike action. The strike affects more than 10,000 students.
Professors have threatened to strike over potential budget cuts that could lead to courses and programs being deleted and up to 60 professors laid off over the next three years. Faculty have also worked without a contract since March 31, 2010.
Dan McDonald, faculty association president, said job security is the highest priority and the association has asked for a no-layoff clause in a new contract.
“The ability to have increased say in administrative appointments at the institution is also a very high priority for our members,” McDonald said.
McDonald said the costs of administrators’ salaries and benefits rose more than 40 per cent in four years – primarily through creating new administrative positions and reclassifying administrative positions with pay increases – while cuts to courses and programs have stranded students on wait lists.
Toni O’Keeffe, VIU spokeswoman, said administrator salaries were frozen in 2009.
O’Keeffe said the government has ordered VIU and other universities to hold costs at current levels. VIU has no concessions on the table, is not asking for removal of items from the faculty association’s existing agreement and has proposed that agreement be extended to March 30, 2012.
VIU is also negotiating with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, representing VIU support and administration staff, the B.C. Government Employees Union, which represents most non-academic instructors of trades, vocational and community programs, and the VIU Faculty Association, which represents most academic instructional staff.
BCGEU workers have worked without a contract since March 31, 2010. CUPE members have not had a contract since June 30.
The university is developing plans to ensure students can complete the semester and receive degrees in the event of a long strike, which could include lengthening the semester.
Steve Beasley, VIU Student Union president, said some student union facilities will close during a strike, but its offices would remain open to support students.
So far, Ralph Nilson, VIU president and vice-chancellor, did not respond to requests by the News Bulletin for comment on the labour situation.
A student rally against education budget cuts will be staged at the Nanaimo campus Wednesday 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
The faculty association has published its demands on its website at http://www.viufa.ca/bargaining-2010.
VIU LABOUR HISTORY
The closest VIU has ever come to a faculty strike was in 1998 when an agreement was reached two hours before pickets were scheduled to go up.
Strike action threatened by faculty was averted again through a government mediator in March 2005.
Support staff at VIU also walked off the job for two days in the late 1990s.
The faculty association at Langara College in Vancouver served 72-hour strike notice Monday. The issues are underfunding by government and lack of adequate counselling and library services.
