The University of Victoria Faculty Association has enough support to call for a vote on forming a faculty union, vice-president Jason Price says.
Price said the association has succeeded in getting more than 45 per cent of the 850 professors and librarians to sign union membership cards.
The association now plans to ask the B.C. Labour Relations Board to order a vote on whether to certify the union.
“We’re comfortable we have enough cards and that we can survive any challenge,” he said.
Price said the association will deliver its request to the labour relations board next month.
“If everything goes well and there’s no challenges, I think you’ll see a vote in January,” he said.
Price said the association expects that a certification vote will succeed.
“Since 1988, we’ve been considering this issue — 25 years,” he said. “It’s the first time we actually put it to the membership and we were able to get support from every single unit, department and school at the university.
“I think what it means is that our faculty trusts one another to make an informed decision about certification.”
The move to unionize has been driven, in part, by the faculty’s frustration that their salaries trail those of colleagues at comparable schools across the country. Professors also want a formal process to deal with non-monetary issues like tenure, discipline and promotions, Price said.
UVic’s administration has taken no position on the union drive, other than to set up a web page to answer questions on the issue.
The page states that the faculty's lower-than-average salaries are “not a reflection of the university administration’s attitude towards faculty and librarians.”
The University of B.C. and Royal Roads University already have faculty unions, while professors at Simon Fraser University and the University of Northern B.C. are considering unionization.
