For the first blog/post for 2014, I thought I would keep it simple. What I will be discussing are the university strikes that have come as of late. Mount Allison University's 154 full-time and 56 part-time staff members have recently hit the picket lines just this Monday morning after negotiations with the school on the new contract have failed. On a side note, UNB is now in its third week of their strike.
Now, most people are not sure on all the information on the Mount A strike so far (since it did just happen today) but this getting nice and a little out of hand, I would like to think. Especially some of the parts of the UNB strike. I may not have all of the first hand knowledge of the situation but I do not think I am far off when I say that a 20% salary increase may be a bit of an overkill. No, you may not be getting paid as much as those in lower ranking universities but they also do live in an area where the cost of living is higher (which would explain a higher salary). Anyone else notice that simple logic? No? All right.
The link is below if you want to check it out. Stay Golden!
Date of the article: 27/01/2014
http://www.nb.dailybusinessbuzz.ca/Provincial-News/2014-01-27/article-3592041/NB%3A-Strike-begins-at-New-Brunswicks-Mount-Allison-University/1
I too, do not know all of the nitty gritty details when it comes to the specifics of the negotiations that are going down at UNB; however, I must agree with you, Seth, that 20% is quite ridiculous! The staff are going to have to realise that they are never going to receive such a high increase in only 4 years! They are lucky the university is already as high as 9%! From my perspective, the strike has gone on long enough already, and I can not see the university going very much higher than 9%.
ReplyDeleteSeth, I am not quite aware of what is going on with the strike. My concern, though would be for all the students that have been paying thousands and thousands of dollars to be in University only to not be allowed to learn. I am curious to see how this unfolds and to see how the university deals with the outrageous demands for salary raises. I would like to see the students get compensation of some form, especially UNB because being on strike for three weeks is a bit excessive, especially to a student that is paying 20, 000 a year to be there.
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