Nova ScotiaArbitration would have been conditional on the union abandoning any remaining non-wage proposals.Arbitration would have been conditional on union abandoning non-wage proposalsFrances Willick · CBC · Posted: Aug 28, 2025 2:21 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoDalhousie Faculty Association members walk the picket line on Aug. 22. (Giuliana Grillo de Lambarri/CBC)Dalhousie University’s faculty association has rejected a proposal by the university’s board of governors to participate in interest arbitration.Members of the Dalhousie Faculty Association have been locked out since Aug. 20, and the union began a defensive strike two days later.The contract for the union, which represents nearly 1,000 professors, instructors, librarians and professional counsellors, expired on June 30. Negotiations and conciliation have not yielded an agreement.On Wednesday, the university released a memo stating that its bargaining team had extended the invitation for interest arbitration to the union.Interest arbitration is when an independent third party is brought in, listens to submissions and reviews evidence from both sides and makes a decision on the contract. That decision is binding.According to the memo, which is attributed to Dalhousie vice-president of people and culture Grace Jefferies, interest arbitration would end both the lockout and strike and “allow both parties a fair and impartial hearing over compensation issues.”The memo said if the union chose not to participate in the arbitration, the lockout and strike would continue.Arbitration would focus only on wagesThe faculty association said interest arbitration would have focused solely on the issue of wages, and participating in that process was conditional on the union dropping all of its other proposals.”Our members have told us loud and clear, this is not a fight about wages,” said association president David Westwood. “Wages are a part of the story. Cost of living is an issue. It’s not the only issue. And we still have a lot of talking left to do at the table and I wish the board would just come back and have a conversation with us.”David Westwood is the president of the Dalhousie Faculty Association. (Daniel Jardine/CBC)The university has offered two per cent increases for each year of a three-year contract. The faculty association’s last proposal was for increases of 3.75 per cent, 4.75 per cent and 5.75 per cent over three years.The union has said that the last three collective agreements have not kept pace with inflation, and its wage proposal is simply to make up for lost ground. At the start of this year’s bargaining round, the union was already nine per cent behind the cost of living, Westwood said last week.But there are other issues on the table, including the conversion of limited-term appointments to career-stream appointments, expanded parental leave benefits, expanded access to child care and more flexibility in class scheduling policies.Labour Board complaintAlso on Thursday, the faculty association executive filed a bargaining complaint with the Labour Board “based on Dalhousie’s use of public messages to bargain directly with DFA members and to circumvent bargaining at the table through appropriate channels,” a news release from the union said.”Bargaining happens at a table and the board has not come to the table since Aug. 11,” Westwood said in an interview. “There’s a lot of issues that are still to be resolved and the best place to do that is face to face.”The complaint asks the labour minister to order the board of governors back to the bargaining table.Classes at Dalhousie are scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Any classes that were supposed to be taught by DFA members will be suspended, but classes taught by non-DFA members will go ahead.ABOUT THE AUTHORFrances Willick is a journalist with CBC Nova Scotia. Please contact her with feedback, story ideas or tips at frances.willick@cbc.caWith files from Blair Rhodes
Dalhousie Faculty Association rejects arbitration, files Labour Board complaint
