Pots, pans and potato mashers hit picket line
Striking Université Sainte-Anne professors and libraries make some noise on March 9 will out on strike
Striking professors and librarians at Université SainteAnne were recently armed with more than just picket signs. They also brought pots, frying pans, oven roasters, spatulas, spoons and potato mashers to the picket line.
Joined by a few students, those on strike since March 3 held a Tintamarre outside the Church Point, Digby County, campus on March 9. A Tintamarre is an Acadian tradition where less-traditional types of noisemakers are used to make loud sounds.
The striking professors and librarians wanted their displeasure heard about the university's decision to shut down the student cafeteria, as well as the stalled negotiations in this labour dispute.
The university says the cafeteria was closed in late February due to the low number of students living on campus this term, since all classes were being delivered online due to COVID's Omicron wave.
Like those on strike, the university said it wants a return to negotiations.
Still, an impasse between the sides remained at the time this story was written.
Standing outside with an oven roaster in his hands, Darryl Whetter, a professor at the Francophone/Acadian university, said they disagreed with the closure of the cafeteria.
“It's kind of like a breach of a contract. You tell someone you're going to be fed until April, and then suddenly it's 'feed yourself,'” he said. “To us, it's a manifestation of how their management style is completely autocratic.”
He said throughout the pandemic, the professors never felt they were being consulted enough about how teaching would occur.
“They would just tell us, with little warning, you're doing all in person. Oh no, you're doing all online. You're doing all online – you have to be on campus but the students don't have to be,” he said, saying they've felt the same way during contract negotiations.
“Contact talks involve give and take, but it's been a wall of ‘no,' Whetter said, adding for negotiations to happen, they have to be constructive.
“They say we want to change a lot of paragraphs, but those are often very minor changes, it's just the wording. Those are not issues. That's just language. Language, of course, evolves,” he said. “But we do have concrete issues we would like to discuss.”
He noted Sainte-Anne is unique in that it's a university and a college, which leads to different teaching loads.
“I'm a university professor so my teaching load is manageable, but my colleagues in the college sector – all of whom are women – their teaching load is increasingly impossible,” he said.
Transparency, equity and a more democratic style of management are all things the unionized staff want to see improvement on.
The collective agreement being negotiated was supposed to have expired June
30, 2020. Both sides agreed to extend it to June 30, 2021.
Asked about their message to students, Whetter said,
“We are fighting for them … Our working conditions are their learning conditions.”
In a March 10 interview, Sainte-Anne president Allister Surette said the university had reached out to the conciliator again to try and get things back on track at the negotiating table.
“We want to be there and we want real negotiation,” he said. “We're very interested that the students complete this term and we'll do what we can to try and get this
impasse over with. But at the present time there's so many things from their side, we're still quite far apart.”
As for the cafeteria closure, Surette said it had nothing to do with the strike.
“Because of the decision of going all virtual this winter semester, there are many less students on campus. We've been in discussion with the students on campus, especially those who have meal plans, since January, tracking this,” he said, saying they were down to about 20 to 25 students who had the meal plan.
“The cafeteria is operated by a third party and it takes much more numbers to make it worthwhile,” he said, saying students were reimbursed a portion of their meal plan. With only around 50 students left living on campus – compared to a usual high of around 270 – Surette said they were able to move affected students into residences with kitchenettes.
“Our student services staff, they've been working with them to find ways to accommodate them as much as possible,” he said. “We also have a shuttle that drives them to the grocery store on a regular basis. If any have any special circumstances, we do what is necessary to accommodate them.”
Asked about the position by the striking professors that the university does not consult with them enough on decisions, Surette said, “We always try to consult as much as possible. I guess it's what is their definition of consultation.”
He pointed to the decision to move all classes online this semester due to the Omicron wave.
“In consultation with all of the department heads, and I went to the university senate to talk about this, it was clear from the students and the staff in early January they wanted a decision as soon as possible
and a decisive decision,” he said. The decision was made to go virtual for the full term, as opposed to constantly making adjustments and changes based on ever-evolving situations.
The term is supposed to end in early April.
The striking professors and librarians, meanwhile, used their pots, pans, spoons, spatulas and potato mashers as musical instruments outside of the university on March 9 as they sang the song, ‘We're Not Gonna Take It' – symbolizing, they said, treatment by the university.
Meanwhile, the university, professors, staff and students are mourning the death of Jean Wilson, who was a professor at the university and the director of the Department of French Studies. Wilson, who had been a spokesperson for the union during the strike, died suddenly on Friday, March 11 at the age of 60.