According to a joint statement released the morning of Sept. 16 from the university and the Dalhousie Faculty Association (DFA), the two sides have come to terms on a new collective agreement.
The tentative deal still needs to be ratified by both Dalhousie’s board of governors and the DAF’s membership, it states.
“We have jointly agreed to end the labour disruption,” states the release, which was authored by Dalhousie University vice-president of people and culture Grace Jefferies and DFA president David Westwood. “We know our community will have many questions about timelines. We will confirm the date classes are expected to resume later today. … More information about fall term dates, fall break, deadlines, exam period, and other return-to-class protocols will be communicated as soon as possible.”
As promised, a news release issued later stated that all suspended classes are set to resume Sept. 23. It went on to note the two sides continue to “work through the many other decisions and logistics of returning faculty and students to learning and research.”
The university and its unionized faculty have been without a new agreement since the old deal expired June 30. Unionized faculty were locked out by the university on Aug. 20 — putting a stop to the start of any classes taught by full-time, unionized professors.
A spokesperson with the DFA said in an email to Law360 Canada that they “are now on a media blackout for the time being.”
“Once we are able to release anything else to the media, we will do so,” said DFA’s Catherine Wall.
Of course, the labour dispute did not leave Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law unscathed.
Earlier this month, professor Jon Shapiro, one of the 39 law school faculty members impacted, described how the law school had been thrown into start-of-the-year chaos due to the lockout.
“The people that will be affected the most will be the incoming first-year class, because the vast majority of the curriculum in the first year — mandatory curriculum — is delivered by full-time faculty members,” said Shapiro on Sept. 3. “So, those students that are incoming, students that are learning those foundational skills — contracts, torts, criminal law … legal writing — all those core [courses] will all be suspended during the lockout. So, no first-year student will be getting that sort of foundational material.”
At the time, Shapiro was unable to say if any of the non-unionized law school instructors would be conducting their classes.
Shapiro was also worried the ongoing labour strife would sour the relationship between faculty and school administrators.
The DFA reportedly represents around 1,000 professors, instructors, librarians and professional counsellors.
Dalhousie is Atlantic Canada’s largest university.
Issues in the dispute included wages, job cuts, class scheduling and parental leave benefits.
According to at least one news report, the union at one point asked for wage increases of 3.75 per cent, 4.75 per cent and 5.75 per cent over three years, while the university proposed a two per cent increase for each of the three years.
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