SIDES AGREE ON ARBITRATOR

Administration and faculty at the University of Northern British Columbia have a name in mind when it comes to agreeing on an arbitrator to break the impasse in reaching a new contract.

“The parties actually came to an agreement on an arbitrator before the end of last year,” UNBC spokesman Matt Wood said. “However, that individual still has to be approached to ensure they will take on the work. Once we have that process complete, we can start talking about the actual arbitration process, dates, etc.”

On Dec. 19, the sides agreed to take their differences to “final offer selection arbitration.”

Under the process, the arbitrator selects between the parties’ best and final offers and without the ability to “split the difference” between the two.

The sides had until Jan. 3 to agree on an arbitrator and the hearing process is to start by Feb. 1 unless the parties mutually agree to extend that deadline.

A similar process was used in 2015 to reach an agreement on the first contract between UNBC and the Faculty Association.

In agreeing to taking the step, members of UNBC’s Faculty Association ended their job action, which included a threeweek strike in November followed by a campaign of refusing to perform duties beyond holding lectures and working with students.

UNBC FA bargaining committee chair Ted Binnema said he expects to have a “much clearer sense of where things are going” by sometime over the next week.

He also said the faculty association remains in the process of deciding whether to pursue its complaint to the Labour Relations Board alleging administration engaged in bad faith bargaining.