Mount Allison Faculty Association sets strike deadline for this Monday

Media Release · For Immediate Release · January 28, 2020

(Sackville, NB) — The Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) has announced that it has set a strike deadline for 12:01 am, Monday, February 3rd, unless new collective agreements are reached by that time.

As of today this strike deadline applies only to the full-time unit of faculty and librarians at Mount Allison.

“The Employer has raised objections regarding MAFA’s part-time voters list used in the strike vote, and in the interests of avoiding a time-consuming and costly legal battle MAFA has decided to hold another part-time strike vote with an expanded member’s list,” says MAFA President Matt Litvak. He said that the part-time group is strongly opposed to the Employer’s unwillingness to address members’ legitimate concerns and he expects this will come through in the upcoming vote.

The main issues under negotiation in this round include resources to support the academic mission of the university, faculty and librarian staffing, workload, equity and human rights – including non-discriminatory workplace accommodation for persons with disabilities – and compensation, benefits and job security for full-time and part-time members.

Full-time and part-time faculty and librarians have been working without a contract since July 1, 2019.  Negotiations began in June; conciliation began in August with a provincially appointed Conciliation Officer and concluded in November. The two sides have been talking since December with the assistance of a provincially appointed mediator.

MAFA’s full-time unit has close to 150 members and MAFA also has a part-time unit of over fifty members that teaches on a per-course basis.

–30–

For more information contact: