Strike 7

Pro-faculty aioe rally downtown, March 12

Colin Slark
Team Member

uring the Canada Winter Games, many

Prince George residents expressed that
it was nice to see downtown full of people
sharing a sense of community together, and
that they would like to see it continue to
happen after the games had come and gone.
Well, downtown Prince George has been busy,
but perhaps not in the way people expected.
Two buildings connected to UNBC in
downtown have been surrounded by striking
faculty members and support staff every
weekday since March 5.

Three rallies have been held in relation

to the strike: a Faculty Association rally

on March 7 helped faculty and their
colleagues from near and far express why
they are on strike, a neutral student rally
held on March 12 called for government
intervention in contract negotiations, and,
most recently, on March 14 a different
group of students held a pro-faculty rally
in front of the Prince George Law Courts.

Some accused the March 12 rally of not
having a clear vision, or of being too vague
to accomplish anything. Agree with the
message or not, the pro-faculty rally did
not suffer from this problem. It was hard to
estimate turnout, but there was a healthy
amount of people in attendance. There
were a lot of students in attendance, but
there were also a lot of faculty members,
perhaps there, as some on Twitter suggested,
to return the favour for the large student
turnout at the UNBC FA’s own rally a week
earlier. The faculty support for the rally
was clear, as evidenced by the presence of
UNBC FA leadership, including president
Dr. Jacqueline Holler, and even some
members of the FA’s bargaining team who
walked down George Street during a lunch
break in weekend negotiations to attend.

Local musical duo Cici & Kazo warmed up the
crowd as people trickled in off the street, and
the rally began with Linda Horianopoulos
singing a UNBC strike-flavoured version of

classic pop song “Hooked On A Feeling”, with
the new lyrics eliciting much laughter from
the crowd. Many students held up pro-FA
signs with a couple highlights being: “Get
my ass back in class!” and “This wouldn’t
happen at Hogwarts.” After that, things

got serious. A parade of UNBC students,
both undergraduates and graduates, stood
at the microphone to explain why they
love UNBC and why the faculty is central

to their experiences. At the beginning

of the rally, it was said that the group of
students that organized the rally is not tied
to any organization and they were free to
say whatever they want, and they did.

It was easy to hear the speakers’ fears that
the current pay structure at UNBC might
lower the quality of their education or even
the value of their degrees later down the
road. Rally organizer Kelley Ware told the
crowd that: “If I had to choose between
taking classes on a beautiful campus with
lower-calibre professors or taking classes
with current professors in a bare warehouse,
I’d choose the warehouse.” Graduate student
Rina Stuparyk said that, in her opinion,
UNBC’s faculty were the reason for the
institution’s success, not the administration.
Pearl Loerke stated that UNBC needs to
focus on maintaining personnel, “We need
to think about human infrastructure. Our
university cannot be run like a machine.”

Edward Quinlan said that he felt this strike
was indicative of a larger problem, what

he saw as the devaluation of education in
British Columbia. Quinlan used examples
like the two education-related strikes over
the last year in BC (BCTF and UNBC FA) and
the fact that BC has a high interest rate on
student loans to argue that the provincial
government does not see education as a high
priority. Rally organizer Emerson Pereira
had a similar viewpoint, telling Over The Edge:
“Education in BC in general makes me quite
sad. We have a right-wing government, the
BC Liberals, that does not really support
education. We have a provincial government
in power that focuses on small and large
private businesses and the thing that

bothers me the most is that rather than
focusing on the universities, they believe
that leaders will come from businesses.”

After students had their say and voiced
support for the faculty and CUPE support
staff, a visibly emotional Dr. Holler came
out to thank students for their support. It
was then announced that the UNBC FA had
donated $1000 in grocery store gift cards to
a group calling themselves UNBC Students
For FA, in order for them to help students
currently unable to make an income from
their on-campus jobs buy food. One of these
students, UNBC student Liana Mancini,
commented that: “In the midst of the
strike, faculty has us in mind.” As the event
winded down, things got slightly chaotic.
Cries of “Free speech!” could be heard in
the distance, getting closer and louder as
time went on. Eventually, a herd of 30 or so
protesters from a different event, protesting
the controversial anti-terrorism bill, marched
to the courthouse square, waving signs

of their own. However, once they arrived,
they did quiet down enough so that the
student rally could conclude satisfactorily.

The organizers of this rally freely admitted
that, alone, this rally solves nothing.
Rather, it is a basis from which to start
providing concrete support for faculty.
One student went around collecting
signature for a petition on behalf of

UNBC students and alumni in favour of
faculty. You can find that petition online

at www.change.org/p/university-of-
northern-british-columbia-administration-
student-and-alumni-statement-in-
support-of-the-faculty-association.

A different group of students
declared that every day
starting Monday March
16 they will march up
Cranbrook Hill
and cross the
picket line,
waiting

outside of UNBC president Dr. Daniel
Weeks’ office until they feel satisfied he is
addressing their concerns. One of the rally
organizers, James Mangan, posted in the
rally’s Facebook group that he is trying

to organize a visit by students to Prince
George MLAs on Wednesday, March 18.

Negotiations do not seem to have
advanced much last Saturday, with UNBC
administration commenting on the FA’s
recent counter-proposal: “The University’s
perspective is that it does not represent a
substantial shift from the FA bargaining
team’s original compensation position tabled
on June 11, 2014.” Some faculty members
expressed on Twitter that they were
unhappy with the fact that UNBC president
Dr. Daniel Weeks and other high-ranking
administrators are not at the bargaining
table. It would seem that the next week

of classes are still very much in doubt.

For continuing developments on the UNBC
strike, there are several places to get up

to date news. The hashtag #unbcstrike is
very active on Twitter, unbcfa.ca features
updates from faculty most days and the
administration’s updates can be found
at unbc.ca/faculty-relations. Also,
overtheedgenewspaper.ca
will feature online articles
you won’t see in print
about the strike.

= ColinsSlark | OE