UNBC faculty may be out on the picket lines this Thursday.
Their union has served the university its strike notice.
Vice President of External Relations – Rob Van Adrichem assures that if professors do go on strike, the university will remain open, though classes will be cancelled.
“A number of other services and areas of the campus that students would use would still be open, although there might be reduced services,” he says. “The university itself hardly ever closes, that’s important for students to know – the campus will be open and services will be largely available.”
Van Adrichem says some of those areas include the library, registrar’s office, and student services.
Van Adrichem says both sides have been bargaining for the past 10 months and continue negotiations this week, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
“The university is very keen to come to an agreement and we’ve been meeting since May,” he says. “We’re continuing to make progress. Just last week, we had a number of articles signed off, so we expect to continue to make progress.”
The university is already offering a compensation package, according to Van Adrichem .
“The offer is related to a package that would add just over $4 million in compensation for the Faculty Association members,” he says.
That offer sees a wage increase over five years, starting at 0% in the first year, going up to 1% in the second, then 1.5% year -over-year for the final three.
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