The Lecturers Union of Memorial University (LUMUN), after 3 days of the strike vote, has received overwhelming support in favour of a strike from its members. The press release by LUMUN highlights achieving this mandate with a high participation rate, stating that the vote will have a major impact on the ongoing bargaining process.
The strike ballot had only one question, “Do you authorize LUMUN’s Executive Committee to call a strike if it deems it necessary?” Through gaining this majority, LUMUN is now authorized by its members to call a strike. LUMUN states that they do not want to go through a strike and impact students– rather that the main determinant here is whether the University comes ahead with a fair deal for the Per-course instructors after 4 years without a new collective agreement.
Alison Coffin of LUMUN pointed out that “Lecturers provide the education students pay for and it’s ridiculous that we work at a university where the Administration pays more for parties with alcohol than they spend to pay an instructor to teach a course. We love our jobs and providing quality education to our students, but that is already difficult with the minimal pay we receive and it’s going to be even more difficult without a fair deal.”
Alison Coffin is referring to the Auditor General’s report on Memorial University which shows the University spending $6,936 including on alcohol on the Employee Service Award dinner while fellow employees, the per-course instructors, get paid around $5,000 – $5,875 for teaching an entire course. It is also worth noting that the strike pay would be higher than the average wage for per-course instructors, as stated by LUMUN previously.
The Union also highlighted that Memorial University is home to the highest administrative salaries per student in Canada, with administrators’ salaries at $2,369 per student. These expenditures, according to the Union, demonstrate the capacity to pay better wages to their per-course instructors rather than simply keeping up with inflation. LUMUN is also calling for better working conditions concerning discipline and investigations especially since the University proposed its financial package to the union, which LUMUN has criticized for its ‘All-or-Nothing’ approach and its relative lack of improvements over the previous agreement.
Both the MUN Students’ Union (MUNSU) and the Memorial University of Newfoundland Faculty Association (MUNFA) have demonstrated their support for LUMUN in this bargaining process. LUMUN states that ultimately “…. this is an issue about whether the University will treat teaching students as a priority and fund it adequately or not.”
To read the full release, visit: https://lumun.ca/2024/03/04/lecturers-union-of-memorial-university-receives-overwhelming-strike-mandate-after-very-high-voter-turnout/
To learn more about LUMUN and the collective bargaining process, visit: https://lumun.ca/