Update: Capilano Faculty Association members have served 72 hours' strike notice. Teachers at Capilano University will be in a legal position to start job action on Monday at 3:15 p.m. Negotiations between the two sides are continuing.
There’s a tense atmosphere on Capilano University campus as the Capilano Faculty Association and university administration have run out of labour mediation sessions and students have been told to prepare for the possibility of a strike.
CapU faculty members voted more than 80 per cent in favour of a strike on March 9 and 10 but the two sides have continued to meet in mediation sessions.
After their final scheduled meeting session together on Friday morning, the faculty association informed the administration its members would be meeting in the afternoon to discuss what, if any, type of job action would follow. That coulc indluce picketing, rotating strikes, withdrawing from some work outside the classroom or an outright halt to work or nothing at all.
“The university’s primary goal is to minimize disruption for our current and prospective students,” stated an email from the university registrar to students on Friday morning.“The potential outcome and impact of strike action is difficult to predict. For these reasons, the university is considering various scenarios and preparing solutions to minimize the possible impacts on students and services.”
The Capilano Students’ Union hasn’t taken a side in the dispute.
“Our stance is to resolve this as quickly as possible,” said student union president Brittany Barnes.
But based on the conversations Barnes has had with her fellow students, “a lot of students are really scared about what’s going to happen.”
“We really want to bring it back to the impact that it will have on students if there is a strike in terms of the exam period or the grading period, the effect it could have on people who are accepting jobs contingent on the fact they graduate on time or are going on to masters programs or international students whose funding is contingent on them being in classes,” she said.
At issue for the faculty in the dispute are clawbacks of benefits, the university’s increased reliance on part-time teachers and increased teacher assessment.
The university’s negotiators have said any increases in costs in the new contract will have to come from elsewhere in the collective agreement.
The tense situation hasn’t been helped by a lack of information coming from the administration, said communications student Catrina McCrae.
“(The registrar’s) email is the first piece of information I have received regarding it — everything else has been word of mouth,” she said.
“Overall, I think that there needs to be more communication, as well as more accountability, on the impacts that an impending strike could have on students.”
