U of L students back to class after strike concludes

By Al Beeber Southern Alberta Newspapers on March 23, 2022.

University of Lethbridge students return to classes today after the end of a strike by faculty.

On Monday, a new collective bargaining agreement was supported by 91 per cent of faculty who voted on it. Of faculty, 92 per cent cast ballots.

The faculty’s vote came two days after the U of L board of governors voted to ratify the agreement, reached Friday after enhanced mediation. That mediation started last Tuesday.

Faculty members returned to work Tuesday with all academic activities beginning today.

A process of addressing an amended academic schedule has begun, according to a Monday post by the U of L.

The university says “the agreement promises labour stability for the foreseeable future and addresses significant areas of concern ULFA brought forward during mediation last week. It reflects recommendations made in the mediator’s report.

“The new collective agreement also protects the university’s ability to maintain equitable access to affordable, high-quality education which is fundamental to our future and the futures of our faculty, employees and students,” the U of L said in its statement.

“The university recognizes the last several weeks have been challenging, especially for students. It is committed to rebuilding its relationship with faculty and making immediate adjustments to protect our students’ interests over the next few weeks,” the statement added.

The strike, which started Feb. 10, lasted 40 days.

Despite its length, the strike fell far short of the longest in Canadian history. That one in 2018 at York University in Ontario lasted 142 days. The previous record was 108 days at Laval University in Quebec.

ULFA president Dan O’Donnell said Monday night he was pleased faculty showed the solidarity they did.

“We’re academics, we’re not used to gathering in herds and I think it took everybody by surprise to realize just how much we could do working together,” O’Donnell said.

He wasn’t however, as happy with the fact the two sides didn’t talk for five weeks before coming to an agreement after a few days of mediation.

He said he’s happy with the agreement but not the money aspect.

“We ended up basically where we said we wanted to be,” somewhere between U of A and Mount Royal in terms of where ULFA settled, he said.

“What we did discover was it became very clear in the last couple of days that the provincial interference in the bargaining is profound and extremely detailed to the point of individual changes to individual job categories. Instructors are allowed something, professors are not … so a really, really micromanaging agreement and mandate.

“That essentially makes collective bargaining impossible in any kind of fair way but beyond that, things that we should have been discussing over the last two years, when we finally sat down and discussed them,” an agreement was quickly made, he suggested.

“It’s absolutely nuts that we spent two years waiting to discuss things that we were able to clean up in four days of negotiating.”

He said the faculty was told by the U of L board of governors the dispute would be long if they walked off the job.

“I was told by somebody just yesterday or Friday that this was a fairly classic attempt at strike breaking or union breaking. Basically this was a four-day strike preceded by a five-week lockout and that’s incredibly unusual behaviour,” he added.

He said the 91 per cent approval of ratification can be seen as a show of support for the agreement and the work ULFA negotiators did on behalf of faculty.

“We explained to people what you’re saying is you don’t believe the negotiating team could get anything more if we stayed on strike. So you’re really endorsing the negotiating team’s decision that this is the best we can do, O’Donnell said.

He said the fact 92 per cent of faculty approved the strike vote on a mandate that two years ago was approved with a 94 per cent vote shows consistency among ULFA members.

“Our members have been completely consistent. Nine out of 10 members have said the university’s on the wrong path and we’ve got to do something about it.”

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