PRESS
RELEASE
Part Time Faculty Win 1st
Collective Agreement at Acadia
A tentative agreement was reached Thursday evening [October 17] between negotiators for the part time faculty of the Acadia University Faculty Association and the University's Board of Governors on a 1st collective agreement for part time faculty at Acadia. The agreement must await formal ratification on both sides before coming into effect; details of the contract will be released later.
Following a long day
of conciliation, lead negotiator Jim Sacouman announced that the two sides have
finally arrived at an equitable first contract for the Acadia's part-time
faculty. With the successful conclusion of contract talks, students' fear of
course disruption has been eliminated.
Part time faculty were given a strong show of support by the students of Acadia University, who issued a press release yesterday that announced a unanimous resolution upholding the legitimacy of the demand for a fair and equitable contract. The AUFA believe this was crucial to the successful conclusion of the negotiation of a 1st Collective Agreement for part time faculty.
The agreement follows seven months of on-again off-again talks with representatives of the University's Board of Governors. The two sides have been negotiating since last April, but talks broke off during the summer when, in spite of the efforts of a provincial conciliator, they failed to reach an agreement. On October 2nd, part-timers voted unanimously to reject the University's contract offer. This rejection was followed by a unanimous vote to strike if their negotiating team failed to achieve a contract. Provincial conciliator Darrell Foley called the two sides back to the table on Thursday. The AUFA executive sent a formal notice to the Minister of Labour on Tuesday, placing part-timers in a position to strike as of 2:30 on October 17th.
Vernon Provencal