nanaimo-info-Blog: Strike Looms at VIU

Vancouver Island University
Mediation Talks FailAssociation In Strike Position Thursday Morning
At 8am this morning mediator Grant McArthur determined that talks between Vancouver Island University and the VIU faculty association had failed. The Faculty Association will be in a legal strike position on Thursday morning. VIUFA President Dan McDonald said, “We are disappointed with this turn of events. In the end, the employer brought no new ideas to the mediation process. While VIUFA explored several options with the mediator to break the stalemate, the employer’s position remains unchanged since Feb 14.”

Chief Steward Dominique Roleants said, “VIU claims that it cannot negotiate any limits on its plans to cut courses and lay off faculty because of the government’s net zero mandate. This is simply not true. Maintaining the current level of instruction at VIU would in no way violate the net zero mandate. The BC Government itself has agreed to no-layoff language for thousands of public sector employees. Maintaining current levels of educational opportunities has always been, and will continue to be, the top priority for VIUFA in this dispute.”

VIUFA members have been without a contract since April, 2010. Roleants said, “Our members believe they deserve a contract and are frustrated with this administration’s continued stalling.” He stated that Management cancelled all bargaining between May and November, and have been unwilling to move at all in the last three weeks of negotiations. “Virtually every university in Canada has language that severely restricts cuts to education and faculty layoffs, yet VIU won’t even meet to discuss this issue with us,” he said.

McDonald said, “This dispute is really about budget priorities. The cost of administrators’ salary and benefits have risen over 40% in the last four years while courses have been cut and thousands of students have been stranded on waitlists. Now VIU president Ralph Nilson is cutting a further 10% out of education, throwing our members out of work and hurting even more students. What’s wrong with this picture?”

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