With the assistance of mediator John Scurfield, the University of Winnipeg Faculty Association and the administration reached a contract agreement on Sunday, March 29. Four days of continuous mediation and negotiations ended the 13-month long negotiation process, thus avoiding looming strike action. Association members voted to ratify the proposed contract on April 3.

The agreement arrived at on March 29 is for a four-year contract, ending in 2001.

The board withdrew its proposed changes to financial exigency and settled for only minor amendments to the redundancy provisions. The agreement entails a commitment to a full study of and provisions for remedy of gender-based pay inequity.

According to the faculty association, a major component of the negotiation process entailed setting up a new salary grid based on external and internal equity.

The new salary scale will be phased in by ranks, with increments paid according to salary thresholds. In 1997-98, the first year of the new contract, the new scale will apply to assistant professors, instructors, librarians, counsellors and coaches. Associate professors will be phased in during the second year, and full professors will be phased in the third and fourth years.

Salary Floors Effective April 1, 1998

Instructor I --     $30,000
Instructor II --     $32,000
Instructor III --     $42,206
Lecturer      -- $32,000
Assistant Professor-- $39,408
Associate Professor-- $51,617
Full Professor --     $57,134
Librarian I --     $32,000
Librarian II --     $34,000
Librarian III --     $43,506
Librarian IV --     $53,432

Depending on rank, increments range from $734 to $2,327. A base increase of 2 per cent will be applied to salary floors, ceilings, caps and increments in the year 2000-2001. Also, in 2000-2001 a cost-of-living allowance will provide an increase of between 2 and 5 per cent. All members will receive full career development increments in each of the four years. The CDI for 1997-98 is retroactive to September 16, 1997.