U of R faculty strike possible before end of semester, says faculty association
Ashleigh Mattern | CBC News | Posted: March 15, 2019 3:19 PM | Last Updated: March 15, 2019
URFA president says they could be in a legal strike position as early as March 28
The University of Regina and its faculty association have failed to reach an agreement after mediation and the faculty association says it's not ruling out the possibility of job action.
University of Regina Faculty Association president Sylvain Rheault said there is a possibility of a strike before the end of the semester, as early as March 28.
"We're hopeful that now that we are facing potential job action that we are in a better position to maybe help the university lean towards a fair agreement," Rheault said.
A strike or lockout could disrupt the last month-and-a-half of the U of R's winter semester for more than 15,000 students.
If it does come to a strike, Rheault said he expects students would only miss a few classes.
"We looked at other strikes involving university faculties in other parts of Canada and usually the strikes are about four to five days which is surprising. So hopefully to come up with a quick resolution."
The faculty association said the university has failed to address its core issues, which include pension contributions, compensation that matches the rate of inflation and hiring "sufficient" permanent teaching staff.
'Pressure on tuition and fees'
U of R provost and vice-president academic Thomas Chase said when it comes to negotiations, the university is concerned about mitigating tuition and fee increases.
"We want to reach an agreement that recognizes that students are facing a lot of pressure on tuition and fees," Chase said. "We want to mitigate any potential increases there and at the same time do what we can to meet the needs of faculty in this contract."
He said if a strike were to happen, the university would keep students and the wider community up to date on proceedings.
The collective agreement expired in June of 2017 and negotiations on it have been happening since April 2018. The agreement covers faculty, instructors, laboratory instructors, librarians and sessional lecturers.
URFA voted in favour of a strike mandate in November 2018. URFA members have voted in favour of a strike mandate in the past, but have never been on a picket line.
Corrections:- An earlier version of this story quoted Sylvain Rheault as estimating there are about three faculty members per student. In fact, he later clarified that estimate is not accurate. March 16, 2019 12:19 AM