Mount Allison Faculty ratifies new collective agreements

Sackville, NB — Members of the Mount Allison Faculty Association have voted overwhelmingly to ratify new collective agreements, after a nine-month bargaining process: 92% of the full-time unit and 93% of the part-time unit voted in favour of ratification.

The vote took place over two full days of voting, ending March 7th. The contracts for both full-time faculty and librarians and part-time faculty run for three years, retroactive to July 1, 2010.

MAFA President Richard Hudson expressed pleasure at the decision of the membership to ratify the agreements. Hudson said: “We achieved important improvements to the agreements, particularly with respect to working conditions for the full-time faculty and librarians, and to both salaries and working conditions for our part-time members.

Although the agreement will see full-time salaries fall further behind those of UNB and other New Brunswick universities, we decided to put off addressing the issue of parity to the next round of negotiations, two years from now.”

The vote arises from tentative agreements reached on February 16, 2011. Previously, the MAFA membership had voted to reject a report produced by a government-imposed Conciliation Board.

Mount Allison’s Board of Regents is expected to address the agreements in the near future.

The Mount Allison Faculty Association represents 160 full-time and 45 part-time academic staff.

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For more information, please contact Richard Hudson, (506) 364-2331 (work) or (506) 389-2239 (home).