U of A negotiations with academic staff at stalemate, strike possible
Although students at the University of Alberta are set to return to in-person classes at the end of the month, a stalemate between administration and academic staff could shut down classes altogether.
According to the university's bargaining updates, negotiations with the University of Alberta's Association of Academic Staff (AASUA) started in November 2020 and the parties have met more than 30 times.
"Negotiations are ongoing between the university and its academic association," the university said in a statement to CTV News Edmonton.
"The university is committed to working with AASUA to reach a negotiated agreement. We welcome mediation as another opportunity to continue negotiations, achieve resolution and bring much needed stability to our community."
Timm Mills, AASUA president and a sessional instructor in linguistics, told CTV News Edmonton the university has gone through a "massive" restructuring prompted by government cuts to the institution over the past three years.
"All of the usual workflow throughs, how we do things, has been upended," Mills said. "A lot of the support staff that would normally help out with the work that we do in delivering the education and doing the research – a lot of the people have disappeared.
"That means there's more work on the instructors to do the administrative work on the side, instead of focusing on the research. And the teaching that's the reason we are here in the first place," he said, adding that more than 1,000 non-academic staff positions have been cut.
"(Contract negotiations) is normally a regular thing that you do. Your contract expires. You bargain a new one," he added.
"We've come a long way, but we find ourselves quite far apart on compensation. We want to try to stop the backward slide where our compensation isn't keeping track on inflation."
Meanwhile, on Thursday, students, faculty and staff marched to the Alberta legislature "to protest the massive cuts that the government has made to the U of A in the last three years and the massive one they are planning to make this year," said Rowan Ley, the Students' Union president.
Ley said because the province is projected to post a surplus due to higher-than-expected natural resource royalty revenues, students shouldn't feel the quality of their education being threatened.
By his math, cuts at the U of A over the past three years total more than $170 million.
While AASUA has applied for a third-party mediator to break the deadlock in negotiations, there is a possibility the association could go on strike in early March — just days after students return to in-person learning.
Mills says a short-term strike is less disruptive to learning than the university's offer to professors and staff on salary, benefits, and the pension plan.
"It becomes harder to retain good academics, to recruit new academics," he said. "That's just going to spell the end of the U of A as we know it."
Faculty association members at Concordia University of Edmonton ratified a new collective agreement after going on a nearly 12-day strike in January. University of Lethbridge staff went on strike the second week of February.
Ley said while U of A students support AASUA's fight for fair compensation, many hope it does not come to a strike that would disrupt learning.
"We all want to see a fair agreement and support for our instructors," Ley said. "We all hope it can be reached on the table."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.