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FacebookConciliation date with NSGEU Local 77 ends without agreement
Pension plan issue still on the table
Ryan McNutt - February 22, 2012
Schdeduled conciliation talks between Dalhousie's Board and Local 77 of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) ended Monday without an agreement.
In a news release, the NSGEU indicated that Local 77—which includes approximately 840 clerical, secretarial and technical workers at Dalhousie—would begin organizing a strike vote in the coming weeks.
Back in July, two days of conciliation resulted in a one-year “rollover” agreement, approved by its membership in early August. The two sides returned to the conciliation table yesterday to work through the remaining issues.
On Tuesday, Dalhousie updated its negotiations website with the details of Monday’s talks. The post explains that while several outstanding proposals were resolved or withdrawn, two remain on the table. The first is a union proposal concerning job postings. The second is the proposal for pension governance – the same jointly-sponsored pension plan (JSPP) model [PDF] that was presented to the Dalhousie Faculty Association (DFA) last week.
“We weren’t able to reach a tentative agreement we could recommend to the membership and we have to move to the next step,” said Joan Jessome, NSGEU president, in the release. “The sides are too far apart on the important issues of wages and pensions.”
Dal team confident agreement will be reached
The news comes less than a week after scheduled conciliation talks wrapped up with the DFA, also without an agreement. Neither union is in a legal strike position yet, however – in both cases, there is a 14-day “cooling off” period that starts once the conciliator files his report. Both unions have asked for the respective conciliators to do so, but as of yet neither report has been officially filed.
Read also: Dalhousie requests more talks with the DFA (Feb. 16)
Katherine Sheehan, assistant vice-president of Human Resources at Dal, remains confident that the university’s bargaining team will be able to reach tentative agreements with both unions once all parties return to the table. In the case of the DFA, Dalhousie has already asked for additional negotiation dates and hopes that these can be scheduled for next week.
She adds that it’s not surprising that the two separate negotiations—DFA and NSGEU Local 77—are reaching the same juncture at the same time, since they’re both centered around the same issue.
“We always knew that these talks would revolve around the pension plan, and we’ve now reached the point where our proposed governance model has been tabled,” she says, pointing to the jointly sponsored pension plan proposal, the key principles of which are publicly available on the negotiations website. [PDF]
She’s eager to return to the bargaining table so the important discussions around pensions can continue.
“When universities across Canada are struggling to support their pension plans, we owe it to our plan members across all our employee groups to agree on a governance model that helps make Dal’s defined benefits plan competitive and sustainable for the future.”
Readers Say
February 22, 2012 4:25 PM
Now the general public interpret this as deliberate actions to trigger a strike/lock out so that DFA members will pay for the strike by not getting paid and students will pay for it by not getting contracted services for which they have paid in full. Dal probably will not give students any money back for such interruptions.
February 23, 2012 7:55 AM
February 23, 2012 1:01 PM
The unions are willing to move to a Jointly Sponsored Pension Plan to ensure solvency relief for Dalhousie. But in the interests of their members, the unions are not willing to give up their critical role in responsible governance of this plan. The Dalhousie Board of Governors is trying to bully its employees to accept a change to pension governance that would put control almost entirely in the hands of the Dalhousie Administration.
Dalhousie's faculty and NSGEU employees do not want to strike. A strike hurts everybody - especially our students. If we are forced to strike, it isn't over money or a desire for something 'more'; it is to ensure that we continue to have a say in how the money we put away for pension is governed. This, in turn, will ensure that Dalhousie can continue to attract and retain the best people.
The Dalhousie propaganda machine is already trying to convince students, parents, and the community that the unions are to blame for stalled negotiations. But students, you know what it's like dealing with the Dalhousie administration money-making machine: The Dal administration takes and takes and takes.
Isn't it time that the Dal administration started doing what is best for its students and employees? When does the administration start SHOWING the world that this is a university worth working and studying at, instead of spewing rhetoric and false claims from badly constructed 'satisfaction' surveys?
A point to ponder: The president of Dalhousie draws a larger annual salary than the prime minister of Canada. Shouldn't he therefore be showing some strong leadership?
February 23, 2012 3:46 PM
February 23, 2012 7:03 PM
February 24, 2012 9:39 AM
Reviewing the text, there are a couple of points where things could have been clearer, so we've updated accordingly. But we're certainly not trying to offend anyone in our noun choice, or intentionally skewing our nouns. Like you, we like our nouns to be clear so that they don't get in the way.
February 24, 2012 2:33 PM
Ellen wants to know why Dal has been being referred to as the "administration" and the "board"... their interests are invested in making more, and more money. We can see this in so many factions of our University - one simply needs to take a stroll to our Bookstore to find this out.
February 29, 2012 7:33 PM
March 1, 2012 10:37 AM
March 5, 2012 12:07 PM
I can't speak for NSGEU but I know that the DFA asked the administration to do almost exactly what you suggested: Settle the 'regular' contract issues now and then take time to discuss the ins and outs of a new pension plan.
In particular, the DFA told the administration that it would formally commit to a Jointly Sponsored Pension Plan and submitted a letter of understanding to this effect. This gives Dalhousie solvency relief of ~$50-70 million a year.
Having given the administration what it has so desperately wanted, the DFA asked the administration to discuss the employment contract and to negotiate an agreement on non-monetary and monetary issues associated with this contract.
The board refused to negotiate.
The DFA offered to remove the discussion of all non-monetary issues in an attempt to move talks forward. The board agreed and then claimed "progress" at the meetings; this was an absurd claim. There was no progress; there was a willingness on the part of the DFA to try to move things along by taking the non-monetary issues off the table.
The board waited until 8:30 PM on the LAST day of scheduled conciliation talks to present a monetary offer to the DFA. This offer was made contingent on removing the pension plan from the collective agreement.
In other words, the administration purposely conflated the contract talks with the pension plan restructuring; there is no need for the pension plan structure to be settled before or at the same time as the employment contracts. In forcing its employee groups to strike, the administration is showing contempt for its employees and disdain for our students. We all deserve better.
March 5, 2012 7:08 PM
The top salary went to Dalhousie president Tom Traves, who was paid $363,418 in 2009 and 2010, according to documents the university provided.
Senior university managers also have access to perks such as free parking and subsidized mortgage rates.
Dalhousie has also added three new senior management positions in the last few years.
A recent CBC News survey found that [Dalhousie President Tom] Traves remains at the top of the salary heap, being paid slightly more at $393,264 per year, excluding benefits."
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/53398-no-belt-tightening-university-presidents-nova-scotia
March 11, 2012 12:49 PM