Medical education faculty and professional staff at NOSM University in Thunder Bay and Sudbury are entering provincially-mediated conciliation with NOSM U administration today, with strong community support.
NOSM U faculty, staff, students and supporters have sent more than 1,300 emails to NOSM U senior administrators, urging them to “negotiate a fair deal that upholds the teaching and learning conditions at Canada’s only independent, Northern medical school”.
(It’s not too late to send your own email – click here to send one now!)
Media across Northern Ontario reported on the conciliation process starting today:
- SooToday.com: Northern med school, workers begin conciliation process
- TBnewswatch.com: NOSM University, workers enter conciliation process
- CTV News Northern Ontario: Unionized faculty, staff at NOSM to begin mediation talks
The faculty and professional staff are represented by the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University Faculty and Staff Association (NUFSA), members of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 677. NUFSA and its supporters are calling on the administration to demonstrate a willingness to use the conciliation process to negotiate a fair and equitable collective agreement that benefits faculty, staff, students, and the Northern Ontario community.
Quotes:
“Clearly, the community is concerned that the University administration remains at odds with supporting a vision of NOSM U as a public university in Canada with an equitable workload, learning and research conditions that are the same as other medical schools,” said NUFSA President Darrel Manitowabi. “The administration’s ongoing refusal to engage in meaningful dialogue with NUFSA has the potential to compromise the quality of medical education in northern Ontario.”
“The working conditions of NOSM University faculty and staff are the learning conditions of students, and ultimately, the care conditions of the people of northern Ontario,” said student Alanna Makinson. “If NOSMU’s administration values training the next generation of doctors, they must show it through fair pay and benefits, and working conditions for the staff that do that work.”