MUN's faculty association ratifies new agreement
Members of the Memorial University of Newfoundland Faculty Association ratified a new four-year collective agreement Friday.
In a press release issued early Friday evening, the faculty association said its members voted "strongly in favour" of the new agreement. The release did not provide the percentage of members who voted in favour of the agreement.
"This agreement has some real improvements for our members," said faculty association president Ash Hossain in the press release.
"However, in many ways it is just a starting point. Our fight for job security for our most precarious members continues, and our work to improve collegial governance at MUN is as urgent as ever."
The press release says the collective agreement includes a committee to review collegial governance at the university, one of the association's biggest demands.
It also includes an extra month of pay for contract workers, says the release, a 12 per cent raise over four years, and no changes to post-retirement health benefits. The release also says new language in the agreement recognizes the "value and importance of Indigenous forms of knowledge."
The faculty association walked off the job on Jan. 30 after negotiations to reach a new contract with university administration broke down. The strike lasted nearly two weeks, with students returning to campus last week, after faculty and administration reached a tentative deal.
The faculty association was arguing for three priority items to be part of its newest deal: improved job security for temporary staff with a clear path to permanency for those who have been with MUN for a long time, post-retirement health benefits, and collegial governance, with its definition in the collective agreement.
"This was a hard-won agreement," Hossain said in the release.
"It is only through the power our members built together that we achieved what we did. Now we will continue to build on the momentous solidarity seen in our strike to make even greater improvements, because there is more to do."
