Faculty & students protest “threats” levied by U of L as potential strike looms

With talks of a strike or lockout being a possibility in the next week or so, the U of L provided an update on the situation on Thursday, January 27 that outlined what might happen should there be job action. The full statement can be read here, but we have highlighted the portion of it that resulted in protesters hitting the picket line:

Impacts of Faculty Association Strike on Students:

A Faculty Association strike will halt all faculty-led student learning and research opportunities at the University.

Prolonged instructional delay threatens student outcomes below, and may result in the loss of the entire Spring 2022 semester:

course completion;

delays issuing final grades required for applications for graduation, graduate studies and other admissions;

disruption to applied learning placements, job placements, convocation, and employment timelines; and

travel requirements for international students

Impacts of Faculty Association Strike on Faculty:

A Faculty Association strike will pause employment for all members, including faculty and sessional instructors. During the strike period, members will be unable to:

offer student instruction and supervision,

conduct or support academic research, or

access any online academic platforms including email

Following the protest, the U of L sent the following statement to LNN in response to the impacts to faculty and students listed above:

“We have a limited semester window to provide the minimum number of instructional hours. A Faculty Association strike would have consequences for everyone, including students. We have an obligation to keep students informed. We’re doing that through direct communication and through our Student FAQ on the university website.”

The University did not directly state whether students would be eligible for a refund on their tuition or fees if there was to be a “loss of the entire Spring 2022 semester.”

While the U of L assures that they only want to protect the interests of students, many who attended the protest told LNN that they perceived the labour negotiations update as a direct threat to students.

“The mental health of students already is so fragile. And I’m like, oh, so you just told all these students on the add-drop date that you are taking away their semester and all of this money they’ve paid is gone. That’s what you’re telling them. That’s [what] you’re telling them is the threat – if we support our faculty,” says U of L student and protest organizer Amy Mendenhall

“My friends and I, we were up to one a.m. that day, reaching out to students, getting information to make sure everybody I could, I could add them to the group so I could comfort them, or we immediately reached out to all of them like, what the heck was that? And all the faculty said, like, this is propaganda, this was irresponsible. It was awful, horrific, and nobody has taken any claim for that, and the silence from admin since it went down has been deafening,” Mendenhall adds.

Julia Brassolotto, an associate professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, says it was amazing to see so many come out on a windy Sunday to show their solidarity.

“I find it disingenuous to suggest that faculty don’t care about our students. We are very, very careful in thinking through everything to do with a potential strike because we know our students so well. We’re the ones at the frontlines who support them through their journey of learning. We have close relationships with them. So we’re acutely aware of the impact this could have and we want to mitigate any challenges, but I’m a public health professor and I teach my students to champion things to make things better. You have to address structural issues by speaking up, and so I think that they’re doing exactly what we teach them, which is to look at what’s fair and what’s reasonable and to speak up and get involved and be a part of that and I think it’s really cool that they’re exercising their right to do this.”

Brassolotto says it has been difficult to go over 580 days without a contract as it only adds to the uncertainty and stress caused by the pandemic.

“Early on in negotiations, there was a threat of a four percent retroactive rollback, which was only removed once we went into mediation. What that meant is that they were telling us for, you know, almost a year that they might dip into our accounts and take back four per cent from the previous year’s salary in addition to rolling back. So there was this financial uncertainty for all of us. Also wanting to protect things in the university like academic freedom and collegial governance.”

Some members of the protest told LNN that they heard rumours that President and Vice Chancellor Mike Mahon would be leaving the university at the end of this term. The U of L states that this is not true and that Mahon’s contract ends mid-way through 2023.

If the U of L’s Faculty Association were to vote to declare a strike, they would have to give 72 hours of notice before it could potentially begin.

Both faculty and the university assure students that they would like to do everything they can to prevent this from happening.

by David Opinko

Faculty & students protest “threats” levied by U of L as potential strike looms

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