UNBC holds strike vote

A strike vote is underway at UNBC.

The main issues under the collective agreement revolve around salary structure and benefits after retirement for faculty.

Vice President of External Relations – Rob van Adrichem says negotiations with a Labour Moderator have been underway since May, shortly after the faculty became a certified union.

“I think it’s a few hundred hours at the negotiating table and that has led to the fact that now we have about 70% of the articles that were brought forward to be part of this agreement, or signed off,” he says. “We feel that we are making progress.”

The membership includes just over 350 members, who are voting via mail ballot.

“That includes a number of different categories of employment,” van Adrichem explains. “One would be our faculty that would include both tenured and tenured-track faculty, what’s called senior instructors, as well as some part-time instructors and librarians. It really extends to a fairly large group of people.”

van Adrichem is pleased with how negotiations have been going, especially with the union only being about nine months old.

“For example, the parties have agreed that there should be an extension of that agreement while the negotiations continue on this new agreement,” he says. “This is different, having a union agreement, it’ll be our first one with the faculty as a union.”

Further sessions are scheduled for January 23rd to 25th.

For ongoing updates, visit UNBC.ca.