Although the vote has not been formally tallied or announced, it appears that the faculty is overwhelmingly in favour of strike action. If it comes to that.
Bargaining has been ongoing for the past year or so prior to the summer. Although many issues have been negotiated and settled, there are still some that the university administration have not budged on.
Some issues include the appointment of professors to limited term positions. The faculty is arguing that this should only be done as a temporary measure if a need arises. However, the university administration would like to see these appointments more common place. What does this mean? Essentially, budget savings for the administration and the ability to move professors around more freely for teaching and lecturing. The faculty sees this rejection as a widespread cause for instability among the faculty where more professors would be juggled in limited term appointments rather than more stable positions.
In terms of workload, the faculty would like to have more autonomy regarding what they deem to be professional activities related to their research or scholarship along with a provision that ensures that faculty members can reject teaching assignments that are outside of their area of expertise.
Financial compensation is also a big issue as usually is in collective bargaining. The faculty is looking for financial pay increments of 4.9% this year followed by 4.2% in each of the next two years. The faculty is also seeking increased course overload compensation to the tune of $150 per course for each of the next three years. This would result in $5,300 by July 2011 for each 3 credit course assigned in a course overload situation.
Finally, among many other issues, is the one of compensation for chairs of departments. Right now, chairs have very little secretarial support in their departments that they oversee. This results in a massive workload increase that is associated with the tasks of being a chair. So, the faculty is proposing a full 6 credit course release or the equivalent in research grant funding or stipends.
Currently, the administration has halted all talks and bargaining discussions with the faculty. It is not known when they will meet next, but it could be as early as the start of November. Therefore, it is expected that NUFA will make an announcement regarding support of strike action as early as today.
But, where does this leave the students? Will Nipissing University leave students in the dark just like York University did last year with the strike action boondoggle that happened there? So far, I have not heard of any contingency plans from the administration side including refunds/credits for tuition paid and time lost. This, of course, is not surprising in the very least.
