Update

NSCC faculty to vote Friday on offer

A 2% average wage increase proposed in three-year deal

NCCS' faculty members met at the Akerley campus to discuss provincial offer terms.

A parade of members sporting long faces and half-hearted smiles walked down the halls of the almost empty Akerley campus of the Nova Scotia Community College Tuesday night.

Around 40 union members and a representative from the province met in the cafeteria of the NSCC's Akerley Campus to discuss the terms of the province's contract offer.

Most leaving the room looked skeptical with what they had heard, but no one would comment publicly.

Union members were demanding a yearly 2.9 per cent annual increase in wages to match the one given to high school teachers last year. Published reports, which have been confirmed, state the province has proposed an average increase of two per cent in each of the three years of the contract.

A retroactive increase of 2.9 per cent will be attributed to the year beginning Sept. 1, 2008. One percent increases for the following two years (2009 and 2010) will be applied.

Union representatives also discussed benefits in the contract such as study leave, bonus payments and sick leave.

Employees will vote on Friday, Oct. 23, on the offer proposed by the province. Results will be available Friday at 8p.m. on the NSCC's website and switchboard, according to Alexis Allen, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers' Union.

Comments on this story are now closed