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HomeNewsFaculty Association at UNBC requesting help from BC's Labour Minister

Faculty Association at UNBC requesting help from BC’s Labour Minister

UNBC Faculty Association President Stephen Rader says its executive council has approved a request to get Provincial Labour Minister Harry Baines involved in contract negotiations that also include the employer.

Rader told Vista Radio the move was made official this morning (Tuesday) but have not received a response quite yet.

“We are hoping that he will be able to appoint a special mediator as you say that can come in and help the two sides bridge some of their differences at the bargaining table.”

He states the fundamental issue right now is that both sides are in a disagreement over the law.

“The employer is demanding that we allow them to break their contract with some of our members and we have a legal opinion that says we can’t do that without exposing ourselves to enormous legal or financial risk.”

Simply put, the Faculty Association doesn’t see an end to the stalemate unless the province steps in.

“We’re kind of at the end of our options here and are hoping that the labour minister will be able to appoint a mediator to look at the situation to help the two sides to bridge this problem.”

Rader adds the strike is nearly three weeks old and he feels for the entire student body who is getting caught in the middle of this whole dispute.

“Here we are at almost the end of the third week of being on strike and our students have been missing classes all this time and our members, our colleagues from CUPE and UNITE Here are out on the picket lines and not getting paid and it’s just a travesty this is going so slowly, we’ve been telling the employer for more than seven months we can’t agree to this.”

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