Faculty, MUN butt heads over accusations strike will drag out until winter break

The president of Memorial University's faculty association says he's hopeful about a written proposal submitted at the bargaining table on Thursday but he wouldn't be surprised to see the process dragged out a little longer.

Ash Hossain said morale is still high, in the middle of the second week ofpicketing, butthe belief on the picket line is that the strike will last another two weeks.

That's because the week of Feb. 20 is reading week at Memorial University, when all classrooms are shuttered and students and staff get a break.

"If they can drag it to next week, the fourth week is free for them," Hossain said. "If they can go three weeks, they can go four weeks."

That move would save the university another week of salary, since the striking faculty members are not being paid.

"Four weeks of salary is a huge amount of money," Hossain said.

CBC News has requested an interview with a representative of Memorial Universitybut did not receivea reply bypublication. On Twitter, however, the university posted the following statement:

"It is false and misleading for the MUNFA president to say winter break is going ahead as a negotiating tactic. Winter break is important for students and instructors whose courses are continuing. We provided that info on Feb. 2 to allow time to plan for that break in the semester."

Some positive signs on 3 key issues, Hossain says

Hossain said the written proposal submitted Thursday could have been done earlier if the university had requested it. He said they met on Tuesday to resume talks, but no actual negotiating happened. They resumed negotiations on Wednesday for less than two hours, when the universityasked for the faculty association's written proposal, he said.

"They could have asked us Tuesday for a written proposal, so we could have had it in probably yesterday," he said.

There are still three hang-ups in the negotiations:

• Improved job security for precarious members through"meaningful language to create a path to permanency for those who [have been] working a long time."
• Post-retirement health benefits.
• Collegial governance, with a definition in the collective agreement.

Hossain said the university had been stubborn on those "very simple issues," but "this week they seem to be talking about our matters of principle, so that's a positive sign."

He said his association is willing to work with the university to shape those requests if they are willing to move on them, particularly with the language around job security and collegial governance.

"We have a definition. If you don't like our definition, just propose something alternate," he said.

Both sides got back to the table at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

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