Landslide strike vote passes at Brock

Tim Stacey
The Brock Press
(Brock University)
St. Catharine’s, on (CUP) – The union representing part-time instructors, teaching assistants and other academic support staff at Brock University have voted 80 percent in favour of a strike – a labour disruption could happen as early as mid-February and would effectively close Brock for study.
The strike vote took place from Jan. 19 to Jan. 21, and union executives will use this information in future bargaining sessions.
This is the latest development in negotiations between the union and Brock. The union has been bargaining with the university since April 2010. They have been without a contract since June 30.
The union claims Brock has been largely negligent concerning the bargaining process. Brock administration has refused to meet with the union up until a month after the agreement expired, and after that, “wasted our time on several occasions by coming [to the bargaining table] unprepared,” as stated in a message from the executive committee’s latest newsletter.
Due to slow progress, the union filed for conciliation – for an impartial mediator to ensure fair progress and accountability within the bargaining process – on Dec. 14, with little result.
The union’s main demands include increases to working hours, the prohibition of seminar elimination, increases in hourly wages for all positions and a better health plan. While Brock has agreed to include Family Day – which falls on the third Monday of February in Ontario – as a holiday for union members, a majority of the key proposals, according to the union, have been completely ignored by the employer.
Kevin Cavanagh, Brock’s associate director of communications, issued a statement.
“Brock is currently in collective bargaining with five unions. All five unions have filed for conciliation and the university continues to negotiate with these unions with the assistance of a conciliation officer,” he said. “The conciliation officer has not issued a ‘no board’ report in any of these negotiations, and deadlines for reaching an agreement have not been set by any of the unions or the university.”
A “no board report” means that negotiations have come to a standstill. Seventeen days after this report is released, both parties are legally allowed to strike or lockout.
Over the past year, multiple university unions in Ontario have voted in favour of a strike during their latest negotiations. This includes the union members of the University of Western Ontario, who were able to broker an 11th-hour deal in November and ended in agreement without having to strike.