MAFA remains committed to negotiating following end of conciliation: Media release

Media Release · For Immediate Release · December 6, 2019

Mount Allison Faculty Association remains committed to negotiating following end of conciliation

(Sackville, NB) – The conciliation stage between Mount Allison University and Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) that started on August 27th reached an impasse on November 27th, MAFA has announced. The Provincial Conciliator filed his report to the Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour on November 29th. MAFA awaits the Minister’s decision on whether to appoint a Conciliation Board by the end of next week.

Matt Litvak, President of MAFA, says that “MAFA’s negotiating team, regardless of the Minister’s decision on the appointment of a Conciliation Board, will continue negotiations with a focus on restoring and preserving the necessary conditions to support excellence in teaching, learning, and research at our university”.

“Our members are requesting improvements to our collective agreements in order to protect the high-quality of our academic programs and to ensure fair and equitable working conditions,” says Litvak. “The issues are the same for us now as they were this past June—the world is changing, and our collective agreements need to reflect that change in order to keep up.”

“We believe that for too long the Employer has reduced front-line services that our members offer to students and this needs to change,” he said. “We call on the Employer to work with us to ensure that Mount Allison continues to provide high-quality academic programming to our students.”

Full-time and part-time faculty and librarians have been working without a contract since July 1, 2019. MAFA represents 148 full time and 48 part time faculty and librarians as a single union and negotiates the two collective agreements in an integrated fashion at a single negotiating table.

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