NSCAD's Port Campus, on the Halifax waterfront. (Photo courtesy of Verne Equinox/Wikimedia Commons)

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FREDERICTON (CUP) — NSCAD Univeristy, the former Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, has moved one step closer to avoiding a strike as administrators have reached tentative agreements with two of the three union bargaining units.

Earlier this month, instructors initially voted 93 per cent in favour of strike action in the face of such issues as more casual employees teaching classes and the future of the school, as NSCAD is currently under review by the province.

The school is one of six Nova Scotian universities being examined because of financial difficulties. NSCAD is facing a $2.4-million deficit for the 2011–12 year.

The university reached tentative agreements with the first bargaining unit — composed of faculty — on Nov. 11, and the second bargaining unit — which includes technicians — on Nov. 16.

The second-unit members will vote to ratify the new contract on Nov. 21 and the faculty unit will vote the next day. Spokespeople from both sides are hopeful they will pass.

“I’ve been assured by the president the board will ratify it,” said Alvin Comiter, union president and NSCAD professor, from his office in downtown Halifax on Wednesday.

“It’s going to be a little trickier with our members because it’s not what they would have wanted — but I think, at an executive meeting next week, the executive will recommend to ratify both agreements.”

NSCAD's board of governors is scheduled to meet on Thursday.

“We’re delighted that there is an agreement so we can move on,” said Marilyn Smulders, the university's communications director.

The ongoing negotiations, which began in June, have been long and arduous. Comiter described them as being “very difficult” and “a mess.”

No details will be released until the membership has had an opportunity to review the terms. Comiter did mention, however, improvements for part-time faculty members were reached, a condition the union was adamant about at the bargaining table.

“I’m pleased to say we did make some improvements to the part-timers that are of course the worst paid and the people with the least job security,” he said.

The tentative agreements are retroactive to July 1 and are set to expire Dec. 31, 2012.

Both sides said reaching an agreement came at the right time as a report evaluating the university’s future is scheduled to be published in the next couple of weeks. Marilyn More, provincial minister of advanced education and labour, appointed in September Howard Windsor, a former deputy minister, to the compose the report after the university rejected the notion of a possible merger with another school. Windsor is working with NSCAD's board of governors to find solutions for the school's financial pressures, after the board voted in favour of keeping the school autonomous back in September.

Comiter said they were unaware of the school's evaluation until they were well into negotiations. The union asked to have the pre-existing contract roll over for the next year, saying it was a “terrible climate to be renegotiating our contract.” The administration insisted a deal must be struck now, however.

“Because the administration refused to take a hiatus and insisted that we continue to bargain, we were rushing to the deadlines in the trade union act, or we would have been in a strike lockout position,” Comiter said.

Both the union and university are hopeful the new agreement will strengthen their case once Windsor’s report is released.

“I think when the minister and the government see the terms of the agreement, they’ll see that the union was bending over backwards to try to make sure that the agreement wasn’t going to make the financial situation any worse,” Comiter said.

The final bargaining unit, representing support staff, is still in the midst of negotiations with the administration and a conciliator. The two sides will meet again next week.

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