Last night, members of the St. Thomas University Staff and Administration Union voted not to accept the administration’s final offer for a collective agreement.
If the administration does not agree to go back to the table with the union, then the staff union will take steps to organize a strike.
Union president Jennifer Burry said there are six outstanding articles left including: job security, layoff, seniority, sick leave and monetary.
Burry said she thinks the administration will want to come back to the table, but they are ready to strike if necessary to get what they want.
“Their final offer is not good enough for us to accept as a membership so we need to go back to the table,” she said.
The support and administration union includes office administration, facilities management, IT services, recruiters, academic advisors and resident supervisors. The union currently has 51 members.
“We strongly believe that it’s in both parties’ best interest in going back to the table and negotiating a contract.”
Burry said the union is now waiting for a response from the employer if they will go back to the table. She said they expect to hear back early next week.
The last negotiations between administration and the union were on Dec. 18 and 19, in which Burry said they passed six articles. But they still have more work to do.
The union has been in negotiations for four years after becoming a certified union in 2010. Over the last year, the administration and the union have been at the table with a conciliator appointed by the Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour minister to get the agreement going.
“It’s our first time around and our first collective agreement. So we’ve never done this before,” said Burry.
“We expect them to come back to the table and we hope that they will. But if not, we need to again enforce that our membership believes these issues are worth taking job action,” she said.
