Members of MAFA’s negotiating team met with the University administration in the presence of three students and the Provincial Mediator on Friday, January 29th, in an attempt to find common ground from which to restart negotiations. The meeting was called by Mount Allison Vice-President David Stewart . Stewart, however, had no new offers in response to MAFA’s last negotiating position and talks broke down at the end of the day.

Much of the discussion focused on the budget priorities of the University. MAFA drew attention to the proportion of Mount Allison’s budget spent on academic salaries, academic instruction and administration costs. This information, drawn from the 1996-97 Canadian Association of University Business Officers documents prepared by Statistics Canada, shows that Mount Allison ranks among the lowest in expenditures on academic activities and among the highest in administrative costs. Comparison with similar universities (see following table) illustrates the low priority the Mount Allison administration places on academic expenditures:

Percent of General Operating Budget Spent on

1. Salaries of Deans appear under academic and not administrative costs.
2. Academic instruction includes academic salaries
3. Administrative costs do not include computing services, maintenance, library or student services.
4. Average and ranking are from the 21 universities included in the Maclean’s group of Primarily Undergraduate
5. universities

MAFA’s salary demands could be met by increasing the amount spent on academic salaries by 1% of the budget. This increase would still leave Mount Allison far behind other universities in the portion of the budget spent on salaries. MAFA President George De Benedetti noted that “if Mount Allison allocated its budget in a similar fashion to the average for other small universities, the administration could accommodate MAFA’s demands within a balanced budget.”

For more information contact:

Prof. George De Benedetti, President
Mount Allison Faculty Association
(506) 536-2968 (strike headquarters)
(506) 536-2396 (Home)
FAX (506) 536-0200
email: [email protected]
Website: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/MAFA

Members of faculty associations from Newfoundland to Manitoba joined faculty from Mount Allison University on the picket line today. This show of support, joined by members of the Mount Allison Staff Association and CUPE Local 1188, was for the demands of professors and librarians for wage parity with faculty at other small universities. Mark Langer, one of the supporting picketers from Carleton University, said that “… faculty across the country are shocked at how low salaries are at Mount Allison. Mid-career salaries at most universities are higher than the top salaries at Mount Allison”.

George De Benedetti, President of the Mount Allison Faculty Assocation said “We are very grateful for this strong show of support for our position in this dispute”.

The faculty at Mount Allison are among the lowest paid in Canada and have been on strike for eight days to support their wage demands.

For more information contact:

Prof. George De Benedetti, President
Mount Allison Faculty Association
(506) 536-2968 (strike headquarters)
(506) 536-2396 (Home)
FAX (506) 536-0200
email: [email protected]
Website: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/MAFA

Members of support staff unions at Mount Allison University will show their support for striking faculty by joining in a sympathy picket on Thursday January 28. These supporters will join faculty from universites across Canada (Manitoba, Acadia, York, Mount St.Vincent, Carleton, UNB and others) to support demands of the Mount Allison Faculty Association for wage parity with other small universities. Salaries for faculty at Mount Allison are among the lowest in the country. According to President George De Benedetti, “MAFA’s salary demands would raise wages at Mount Allison to only the middle of the group of comparable institutions.” The strike is in its seventh day.

For more information contact:

Prof. George De Benedetti, President
Mount Allison Faculty Association
(506) 536-2968 (strike headquarters)
(506) 536-2396 (Home)
FAX (506) 536-0200
email: [email protected]
Website: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/MAFA

Tantramar MLA Peter Mesheau has called for provincial government intervention in the current labour dispute at Mount Allison University. Mount Allison Faculty Association President George De Benedetti reacted to Mr. Mesheau’s statement by saying that “MAFA has repeatedly indicated it willingness to entertain third party intervention to resolve this dispute. We have confidence that our demands are fair and reasonable and we do not fear outside involvement.” The dispute at Mount Allison is in its fifth day with both parties still far apart and with no resolution in sight.

For more information contact:

Prof. George De Benedetti, President
Mount Allison Faculty Association
(506) 536-2968 (strike headquarters)
(506) 536-2396 (Home)
FAX (506) 536-0200
email: [email protected]
Website: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/MAFA

Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, is in the midst of its third strike in the 1990s, and many faculty and other observers are wondering what the future holds for the institution.

Mount Allison is the perennial top small undergraduate university in Canada, but a closer look tells a different story, say the institution’s internal critics. “We may come in first overall in Maclean’s out of 23, and second on the budget per student measure, but our salary scale is a dismal twentieth in the same group,” says George De Benedetti, spokesperson for the Mount Allison Faculty Association.

The Association went on legal strike this past Thursday, when faculty members exchanged their warm offices for picket signs, winter clothing and boots. Eighty-five percent of the bargaining unit voted to strike and spirits on the line are high, says De Benedetti.

Superficially, at least, De Benedetti says, this strike is about money, but it is also about the future of the institution. “We want wage parity with our sister institutions. It is unrealistic to claim that this institution will maintain its quality or its reputation with the offer that the Board of Regents has made to us,” he says.

The Board has offered many members of the faculty increases which will actually see the scale fall further behind other institutions, De Benedetti says. “At many universities, the administration wants to increase wages if they can because they know that this will attract the brightest new faculty, and provide incentives to everyone else to work hard,” De Benedetti says. But at Mount Allison, the goal appears to be the opposite. “They treat us badly, underpay us, deny that they are underpaying us, and then somehow expect that Mount Allison will retain its reputation,” he says.

De Benedetti says that in the last seven years many faculty and other staff have left the university, and he expects that the institution will have a hard time keeping its new faculty unless the Board and Administration change their attitude.

“They are seeing that despite the globally-competitive environment we live in, this administration will not even pay regionally-competitive salaries,” De Benedetti says.

Mount Allison under the leadership of President Ian Newbould has had troubled labour relations. In his first year as President, the faculty went on strike to protect sabbaticals, oppose mandatory retirement, and avoid a salary cut. In 1994, the support staff went on strike for six weeks at the height of winter. Now, the faculty is out again.

“The President credits himself with balancing the books, but that’s easy to do when you continue to underpay all your staff, including secretaries, clerks, and grounds workers,” De Benedetti says.

De Benedetti also cites a recent report commissioned by the Canadian Association of University Teachers and written by Professor Fred Wilson of the University of Toronto, who pointed to a lack of civility at Mount Allison. “The Faculty Council is still on record as voting non-confidence in the President, and the students and Faculty voted against his reappointment, especially since it was done without a proper review,” De Benedetti says.

“Yesterday’s announcement of support from the Board of Regents does not surprise us. It has reacted in the same way several times. But you have to wonder how long they are prepared to back him without question,” De Benedetti says.

For more information contact:

Prof. George De Benedetti, President
Mount Allison Faculty Association
(506) 536-2968 (strike headquarters)
(506) 536-2396 (Home)
FAX (506) 536-0200
Website: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/MAFA

The Mount Allison Faculty Association strike enters its second day on Friday, January 22nd, with a show of support by Elizabeth Weir and Dr. Bill Graham. Elizabeth Weir, leader of the N.B. NDP, and Dr. Bill Graham, president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, will join picketers in the morning and will address striking faculty and librarians at 12:30 at strike headquarters (47 Main Street, Sackville).

During the first day of the strike messages of support came in from universities across Canada, and faculty members from the Université de Moncton joined the MAFA members on the picket lines. Many Mount Allison students also showed their support for professors and librarians by bringing refreshments to strikers, or even joining them in picketing.

Students plan a demonstration at the start of the meeting of the Board of Regents on campus in Tweedie Hall (Trueman House) Friday morning at 9:00 a.m.

Early Thursday Mount Allison University administration relented on its earlier threat to cut off striking members from medical care, dental care, long term disability insurance, life insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

For more information phone:

Roger Wehrell, President MAFA
536-2968 (MAFA Strike Headquarters)

The Mount Allison Faculty Association set Thursday, January 21, as the date for strike action in support of its demand for improved salary scales comparable to other small Canadian universities.

Currently Mount Allison’s faculty salary scales are near the bottom of the 23 small Canadian universities with which Maclean’s Magazine compares Mount Allison, says Roger Wehrell, spokesperson for the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA).

“The Administration has refused to even admit this is a problem after 45 bargaining sessions,” says Wehrell. “Job action is apparently our only recourse.”

In a related move, the Mount Allison University Administration took the unprecedented move threatening to cut striking MAFA members off of medical, dental, long term disability and life insurance. Other university and industrial employers always allow striking workers to cover the costs of these plans rather than simply having workers cut off. “Mount Allison professors and librarians cover the costs of these plans even when they are working,” says Wehrell.

These tactics will make it harder to settle the current labour impasse, according to Wehrell. “What we’ve heard from our members is that this will generate bitterness that will take a long time to heal, even before a single day of picketing,” Wehrell says.

For more information,
call Roger Wehrell

• (O) 536-2968
• (H) 536-2470

On January 14th and 15th, Mount Allison University professors and librarians voted 85% in favour of job action, which could come as early as next week according to MAFA spokesperson Roger Wehrell.

“The Executive and bargaining team is pleased to have this level of support. It is considerably higher than the 70% vote of support we had before the 1992 strike,” Wehrell says.

This past Tuesday evening, January 12th, MAFA members had already voted 86-5 to reject the administration’s latest offer.

Mount Allison students have been signing a petition calling on both sides to accept binding arbitration to settle the dispute. The MAFA executive is willing to consider arbitration as a way of resolving the dispute.

In other developments, the two faculty representatives on the university Board of Regents, Dr. Brian Campbell and Dr. William Godfrey, have both resigned from the Board effective January 13th. In his letter of resignation, which was circulated to the Board members and widely on campus, Dr. Campbell says that he is resigning in order “to vote in favour of strike action and join my colleagues in pressing for a contract which recognizes the contribution made by faculty.” Faculty members who sit on the Board of Regents cannot be members of the union and are not allowed to go strike.

For further information please call:
Roger Wehrell, VP & Spokesperson, Mount Allison Faculty Association
(O) (506) 364-2968
e-mail: [email protected]
web site: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/MAFA

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has announced that it will form a Committee of Inquiry to investigate the treatment of Prof. Michael Thorpe, says George De Benedetti, President of the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA).

“There is still much concern on campus about the treatment of Professor Thorpe, so we are pleased that the CAUT will investigate this case,” De Benedetti says.

Professor Thorpe, who retired from Mount Allison in 1997 after 23 years, was denied a teaching position in the university’s Department of Continuing Education by the Administration this past winter. In addition, despite Senate recommendation, the Administration and Board of Regents took the unusual step of refusing to grant Professor Thorpe the honourary title of Professor Emeritus.

Professor Thorpe has attributed this administration’s opposition to his very public criticisms of the Newbould administration. Eighty past and current members of the university faculty signed a petition this past spring in support of Professor Thorpe.

The Committee of Inquiry is normally appointed to investigate suspected cases of the violation of academic freedom, De Benedetti says. A number of individuals will be appointed by CAUT and will visit the campus to investigate the treatment of Professor Thorpe.

In correspondence to MAFA, CAUT Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee Chair Dr. Patrick O’Neill outlines a number of concerns that the Committee will investigate. These include inquiring into the process through which retired faculty members teach occasional courses; the process of conferring Emeritus status at Mount Allison; the establishment and use of personnel files, including secret files, and the question of whether Professor Thorpe was treated according to the principles of due process and natural justice.

“This whole series of events illustrates the lack of civility at Mount Allison, which was documented by Dr. Fred Wilson of the University of Toronto in 1997,” says De Benedetti.

The CAUT has been criticized for probable bias by the Mount Allison administration, but this concern does not trouble Dr. O’Neill of the CAUT. “One thing that can obviously be said is that we did everything we could to get the University Administration to agree to a jointly appointed committee, but they refused. That forces us to go it alone,” O’Neill says. “We are still hopeful to have the cooperation of the Mount Allison Administration,” De Benedetti says. The composition of the committee and its arrival in Sackville will be announced in the new year by CAUT.

-30-
For more information contact:

Prof. George De Benedetti, President
Mount Allison Faculty Association Strike Headquarters
47 Main Street, Sackville NB
(506) 536-2968 (strike headquarters)
(506) 536-2396 (Home)
FAX (506) 536-0200
[email protected]
http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/MAFA

After a week of work by a Department of Labour conciliator, talks between the Mount Allison administration and the university faculty have reached an impasse.

Both sides made some progress on non-monetary issues, but are still far apart on salary scales.” says Roger Wehrell, spokesperson for the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA).

At a meeting Tuesday, MAFA members expressed strong opposition to the Employer’s last offer. Following the hostility directed at the offer the Conciliator indicated that he would be filing his report to the Minister on Wednesday. Within two weeks the sides will be in strike/lock-out position. MAFA is scheduling a meeting of its members in early January to prepare for a strike vote. Wehrell also noted that 95% of the members recently voted to support their negotiating team, with strike action if necessary.

The MAFA executive is also buoyed by the recent provincial budget, which provides for a 1% funding increase for New Brunswick universities instead of the expected 1% decrease. “For Mount Allison this will mean an unexpected increase in revenue next year, apart from tuition revenues, so there’s no excuse for the administration. And, after years of operating surpluses, and now with this government announcement, Mount Allison has definitely turned the corner financially, and it’s time to reward the faculty, whose hard work and sacrifice made the institution’s success possible,” Wehrell says.

Wehrell also commented that a number of senior professors are retiring and this will free up funds both to replace them and also to improve salary and benefits for everyone else.

The Faculty has been working without a contract since July 1st, and the members are resolved to improve their situation, Wehrell says.

For further information please call:
Roger Wehrell, VP & Spokesperson, Mount Allison Faculty Association
(O) (506) 364-2968
e-mail: [email protected]
web site: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/MAFA