Librarian and Archivist members of the University of Western Ontario (UWOFA) have ratified their new collective agreement with the employer. UWOFA released the following statement following statement regarding the ratification vote:
Unionized librarians and archivists at Western University have ratified a tentative collective agreement reached with the university administration.
Members in the academic librarians and archivists bargaining unit of the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) voted 86 per cent in favour of the deal. Voting occurred on campus on Thursday, Nov. 12 and Friday, Nov. 13. Western’s Board of Governors voted to ratify on Nov. 26.
“I’m so thankful to our negotiating team for all their hard work and commitment,” said UWOFA president Kristin Hoffmann. “They were able to reach a good deal with the tremendous support of our members.”
A tentative deal was reached on Friday, Nov. 6 after two days of conciliation with Greg Long, a Ministry of Labour appointed conciliator.
UWOFA represents about 1,600 faculty, librarian and archivist members at Western, 50 of whom are librarians and archivists.
The four-year deal includes one per cent scale increases and other salary increases such as lump sums to base salary, increases to merit pay, and money allocated to a career trajectory fund. The deal also makes significant progress in aligning the Librarian and Archivists’ collective agreement with the agreement for professors.