At a formal bargaining meeting between the UQTR and the lecturers’ union this morning, the union pulled out of the process. Seeing the employer’s stalling tactics, which reflected a clear unwillingness to make progress, union representatives stood up and put an end to the process until further notice. They will be filing an application for mediation-conciliation as soon as possible.
“The negotiations began in December 2020. We’ve been pretty much spinning our wheels now for almost a year. From the start of today’s session, the employer went back over some issues that have been thrashed out every which way. We voiced our dissatisfaction at this pace, which was met with a terse reply. It’s now time to get on with something else, and we’ll resume negotiations in the presence of a mediator-conciliator appointed by the Ministry of Labour,” explained union president Carole Neill.
“Unfortunately, UQTR management has not yet heard the message conveyed by our promotion campaign to remind people that lecturers have given 56% of undergraduate courses in 2021 and play a key role in the mission of the UQTR. The least one could expect would be a bargaining process which, in both form and content, recognizes their role and their value,” added Carole Neill.
This campaign, which was launched on a very positive note last October 11, took a very different turn two weeks later when difficult questions arose about the lack of recognition demonstrated by UQTR’s management.
The second phase gave huge exposure in Mauricie-Centre-du-Quebec to the some 920 lecturers, particularly through social and digital media, conventional advertising on bus shelters, in buses and on billboards, not to mention print and TV advertising.
The campaign website is at https://www.çapassepas.ca/ (in French only)