Atlantic Academic Union braces for Strike.
March 11, 2024
AAU members reject NSCC offer
Members of the Atlantic Academic Union rejected the Nova Scotia Community College’s Feb. 27 post-conciliation offer with an overall 75 per cent no vote recently. The online vote to accept or reject NSCC’s offer took place March 7 and 8. The AAU represents 1,081 NSCC faculty and professional support staff.
“This offer was intended to divide and conquer union members,” said AAU lead negotiator Susan Thompson Graham. “It didn’t provide an equitable increase for all members, and in particular focused the largest increase on entry-level steps of the salary scale where there are few employees.” During the vote, NSCC management violated voting protocols by communicating directly with union members.
“NSCC’s offer would provide a 7 to 8 per cent economic increase to union members over a three-year contract,” said AAU president Barbara Gillis. “This is behind what other post-secondary institutions have received and is not acceptable to our members who are over 14 per cent behind inflation.” Over half of these members have had no in-step increases for years, some for decades.
Students have thrown support behind the AAU by writing NSCC president Don Bureaux, VP college services and strategy Anna Burke, and also NSCC Board of Governor chair Karen Churchill. Students in programs subject to national and provincial regulations could also lose their academic year. Some students are pursuing legal options to pressure NSCC to provide a reasonable offer and prevent a strike.
“In one year, NSCC spent almost $1million on increases for managers, while it won’t spend money to reward front-line employees, many of whom worked during their vacations to prepare teaching materials and support students during COVID,” said Thompson Graham. “Many college managers received payouts of any vacation they missed during the pandemic.”
The AAU, NSCC and the conciliator will meet on Thursday, March 14. If no resolution is achieved, NSCC will be facing its first strike in history, where half its provincial work force will walk off the job, likely on Monday, March 18. Other areas unresolved in conciliation include improved workload, working conditions, fair hiring, and protection of bargaining unit work in addition to wages.
AAU members train for every priority in the provincial budget. Without AAU members, the province will not meet its budget goals.