With labour disputes looming at three Alberta public universities, it came as a surprise when the faculty association at a small private university in Edmonton became the first in the province’s history to walk off the job in a legal strike. The Concordia University of Edmonton Faculty Association filed legal strike notice on Dec. 22, telling the university’s administration that if there was no deal by the New Year there would be a strike. Most people who pay attention to Alberta’s post-secondary institutions probably would have bet the first faculty strike in the province’s history would be at Athabasca University, nominally located in the town of Athabasca, the University of Lethbridge, or Calgary’s Mount Royal University. At AU, the faculty association has been in negotiations for nine months without the administration so much as tabling a full offer or even saying what its monetary position is. Like most of Alberta’s private universities, CUE received no cuts in funding from the Alberta Government.

Source: CBC News January 06, 2022 19:02 UTC