Laurentian University and its support staff union both say they hope to reach an agreement soon, but it looks increasing unlikely as neither side has budged during contract negotiations.
Laurentian University Staff Union (LUSE) president Tracy Oost says they're worried the university will lock its doors on 250 workers in clerical, secretarial, maintenance, printing, operations, residence, library jobs, as well as technicians, technologists, and some semi-administrative personnel.
Although negotiations have been at a standstill so far, It's premature to assume either the union will strike or the university will lock workers out, says Tom Zsolnay, executive director of university advancement.
The university, which is currently experiencing financial challenges, called the talks off July 15. Both sides go back to the bargaining table Aug. 8-9, but if a resolution is not reached, a lockout or a strike could occur as early as Aug. 10.
The collective agreement expired June 30, but terms still apply until a new collective agreement is reached or a strike happens.
“We're worried we're going to be locked out,” says Oost. “It just doesn't look very hopeful at the moment, especially when we were prepared to agree to some of the things the university wanted.”
“They basically just refused to even come back in the room.”
Zsolnay says the union needs to understand the economy and Laurentian's finances aren't where they were when the previous contract was negotiated.
“It's about getting a little more flexibility on how to restructure under our current financial situation,” he says.
Currently, administration doesn't have the ability to lay off employees as a result of market demand. They can only do this through seniority.
There are no current plans to lay employees off this year, but there is need to trim the budget, Zsolnay says.
“Obviously, we can never say never.”
Laurentian has proposed 70 concessions for the 37 articles on the collective agreement. At the heart of the union's concern is the removal of “seniority language” and the “grievance” clauses for workplace harassment from the contract.
Knowing the university is under financial strain, the package the union presented was “very reasonable” to start with, says Oost.
The union stated in a media release that the 12 proposals it made to the university dealt mainly with clarifying language issues to assist in reducing cost expenses on both sides.
“The university instead doesn't want to address anything in our package,” says Oost. Human resources was concerned more about their current inability to terminate entire programs, including senior staff as well as their ability to make cuts to staff, she says.
She's confused about why the university wants greater access to staffing issues when president Dominic Giroux wrote in his blog that he's found the necessary budgetary savings this year.
“I'm not sure why they would need to lay off full-time people or to decimate some of the core things that make a union a union unless they're just trying to union bust.”
But Zsolnay denies the university is targeting LUCE, saying less than 250 of Laurentian's 900 full-time employees are from the union and that everyone needs to make sacrifices.
“It's not like they're a huge piece of the pie. As far as I know, there's no plan to start massive layoffs.”
