By McGill Reporter Staff
The University and the union representing McGill support staff have accepted the recommendation of a government-appointed conciliator, enabling the two sides to reach a new contract agreement that will run through November 2010.
The new collective agreement with the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA) includes a nine per cent wage increase over three years and financial compensation for night and weekend work. MUNACA, which represents 1,700 employees, had been without a contract since December 2007.
“We are pleased that this negotiation has come to an end, especially at this time of economic uncertainty,” François R. Roy, Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance), said in a statement issued on March 31. “MUNACA members are a vital part of the University community and are key to McGill’s mission and success.”
More than 80 per cent of MUNACA members accepted the conciliator’s recommendation last week, putting an end to pressure tactics applied by the union.
The settlement “is not what we hoped for,” said Maria Ruocco, President of MUNACA, in a statement issued after a special assembly general of the union on Thursday, March 26. “On the other hand, in the current economic situation, the recommendation of the conciliator was a compromise that seemed acceptable to us.”
MUNACA members work in University offices, laboratories, libraries and on campus grounds.