Members of Laurentian university’s faculty union and supporters hold a protest in Sudbury, Ont., on Thursday. The faculty members have been on strike since Jan. 19.Gino Donato/The Globe and Mail
A faculty strike is threatening to derail the winter term at Laurentian University as professors whose pay was cut during the school’s 2021 insolvency seek to regain some of the ground they lost.
A strike began on Jan. 19, a day after a mediator declared an impasse in negotiations. The two sides are far apart on wages, workload and pension issues, according to both the faculty association and the university administration.
Students have had their classes and all other academic activities cancelled. Some at the school’s campus in Sudbury, Ont., are worried that the strike could force the university to cancel the entire term. The two sides don’t have a date to return to negotiations at this point.
Laurentian faculty association president Fabrice Colin said the faculty association made enormous sacrifices during the university’s insolvency to help it survive. Now, his members want to see their pay and working conditions improve.
“We suffered job losses. Our pension plan was decimated. We had significant wage rollbacks and increased workloads. We did everything that we were asked to help stabilize the university,” Prof. Colin said. “Now that Laurentian is in a good financial situation, it’s time for the board of governors to step up and do its part.”
In 2021, Laurentian became the first publicly funded postsecondary school in Canada to file for creditor protection. It then underwent a painful restructuring that led to hundreds of job losses and the elimination of dozens of programs. The institution survived, but the turmoil hurt the school’s reputation and its enrolment.
More than 100 faculty members lost their jobs as part of the cutbacks. Those who weren’t let go took a pay cut of five per cent and then had their wages frozen for two years. They also agreed to work several unpaid days every year.
In recent years, the university’s financial position has improved. It ran operating surpluses of $40-million-to-$60-million in the past two years. Enrolment, which dropped 19 per cent in 2022, bounced back about 10 per cent by the fall of 2024.
The faculty association wants to see significant pay increases for its members. Prof. Colin said Laurentian professors are now at the bottom of the pay scale in Ontario. They would also like to see their pension moved to Ontario’s University Pension Plan, a fund that serves six universities and has nearly $13-billion in pension assets.
Laurentian president Lynn Wells said the administration has made a fair and reasonable offer. She said the entire postsecondary education sector is financially constrained by a domestic tuition freeze in Ontario, in place since 2019, and the impact of federal government cuts to international students.
“We need to work within our means to make sure that we’re setting the university up for long-term sustainability,” Dr. Wells said. “It’s a very good offer that we put on the table that will put our faculty back into the mid-range of our comparator universities on salaries.”
Dr. Wells said she has spoken with the leaders of the university’s student associations and she understands that a strike can be an anxious time. She said the university aims to support its students by keeping them updated and offering access to counselling.
Nathan Kahlon, a third-year business student, said he hopes the strike can be resolved soon. He worries that if it drags on it could threaten the entire term. He said he had no idea when he returned to classes after the winter break that a strike was a possibility.
“It completely blindsided me,” he said.
He was also at Laurentian when it was going through the insolvency process so he has experienced some of the knock-on effects. He said there have been fewer electives, for example, and it can be difficult to find courses that fit his schedule as a result of the cuts the school has made.
He said clarity about the likelihood of saving the term would help him decide whether to seek more hours at work.
Prof. Colin said the average faculty strike in Canada in recent years has been about 19 days. He said if the strike were to last four weeks or longer it could potentially threaten the term.
“The minute the employer signals it’s interested in going back to the table, we will be there,” Prof. Colin said. “We hope that this call will come soon.”