Academic staff at the Atlantic School of Theology ratified their first contract as union members in March.

Alyda Faber, president of the AST faculty association, said the three-year deal reached late in the evening of March 21 covers salary and working conditions for the eight full-time faculty and two librarians at the school in Halifax.

“Now we have a salary grid with regular step increases, a guarantee of librarian research leave, agreement on sustaining the faculty complement and procedures that spell out steps for grievance and arbitration when differences arise,” Faber said. “A first collective agreement is about locking in important basic rights.”

The new agreement, inked after 11 months of negotiations and a threatened strike, runs until March 30, 2013.