NSGEU, Dalhousie University Reach Tentative Agreement, Potentially Avoiding Strike
HALIFAX – The NSGEU and Dalhousie University has come to a tentative collective bargaining agreement, just one day after the union warned of potential strike action, says union president Jason MacLean.
In an interview with Huddle on Thursday evening, MacLean said the 844 affected workers will be voting on whether to ratify or reject the agreement between Friday and Monday. Details of the tentative agreement weren’t immediately available.
The 844 employees work in administration and technical support and are spread out over the Halifax campus, the agricultural college in Truro, and New Brunswick.
The union and the university have been in talks for seven months. The NSGEU has claimed that Dalhousie wanted to use the federal government’s 2019 pension plan enhancements to subsidize the employer’s contributions.
“There’s no problem with the Dalhousie pension plan. (Dalhousie) wanted pension reform for the past 20 years and they [had wanted] to force our members (picketing) out on the street, and our members don’t want to go,” said MacLean.
“There’s a modest increase in wages already attached to their final offer. What we’re saying is that’s not the sticking point. Our members would like to have more wages, but that’s not it – it’s the pension.”
MacLean says any strike action would have a major impact on campus activities. If the collective bargaining impasse isn’t resolved, there will be no staff on hand to handle any IT requirements for professors, students, and staff.
“Let’s say, for instance, they’re doing distance learning, our members are the ones conducting the IT on that,” said MacLean. “They’re working the cameras, the audio, and they’re running the internet and security-based stuff on campus… they are all over the campus.”
“It will effectively shut down the campus…the professors will have nobody to rely on, different teams will have nobody to rely on.”
Huddle Today attempted to reach out to Dalhousie University, but wasn’t able to reach anyone prior to publication.