An arbitration award handed down Sept. 29 has settled outstanding wage issues left over from a three-week strike in January by approximately 575 full-time academic staff at the University of New Brunswick.
The three-member panel allocated increases of 3.5% in the first year, 4% in the second, and 5% in the third, retroactive to July 1, 2013.
That’s an improvement over the partial deal announced at the end of the walk-out that called for 2.5% increases in each of the first two years, with the third to be decided by arbitration.
“It was clear the arbitrator realized how far behind we are to comparable universities,” said Miriam Jones, president of the Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers. “This deal doesn’t bring us up to where we think we should be, but it does bring us a good deal closer.”
The collective agreement between UNB’s administration and faculty contains salary clauses that reference the consumer price index as well as for comparison to 14 institutions across the country, including Simon Fraser, McMaster, Waterloo, Victoria, Carleton, Windsor, Guelph, Queen’s, Regina, Saskatchewan, Dalhousie, Memorial and Manitoba.
The arbitration decision that dealt only with pay increases emphasized the need for UNB to remain competitive with the other schools.
“We are of the view, based on the ability of the university to attract and retain quality faculty that it is, in fact, in a competitive position relative to other universities elsewhere in Canada and within the province. It is important to this board, in formulating its award, that this competitive position be maintained,” said the panel’s written decision.
The decision also notes that quality of teaching is integral to remaining competitive: “…(I)t is obvious that one of the reasons, if not the most important reason, that a student attends a particular university is because of the nature and quality of the programs offered and of the quality of those teaching those programs.”
The strike began Jan. 13, halting classes for almost 11,000 students at UNB, the oldest English-language university in Canada. Administrators announced a lock-out the next day.
It ended with a tentative agreement on Jan. 30, but was followed weeks later by non-confidence motions from several faculties asserting disagreement with the university’s direction and administrators’ lack of transparency with finances.
Jones said she and her members are pleased to have the ruling, but that the other concerns remain.