BIBLE HILL - The planned merger between the Nova Scotia Agricultural College and Dalhousie University is akin to a "hostile takeover," NSAC staff heard Monday.
"This is not like any other normal bargaining situation, this is something that's kind of like a hostile takeover, in my view, by Dalhousie," said Keiren Tompkins, executive director of the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU), during an emergency meeting held in NSAC's Alumni Theatre.
NSAC faculty and staff are currently civil servants who are employed by the Nova Scotia Government and represented by the NSGEU.
Once the merger is complete, which is supposed to be prior to the start of classes in September, NSAC staff would become employees of Dalhousie University and would be represented by four separate bargaining units. Some employees might not be covered by any union at all.
A total of 228 non-faculty members stand to be affected by the move, including administrators, clerical and custodial workers and other non-teaching staff.
During the two-hour session, which attracted an audience of slightly more than 100 individuals, both Tompkins and NSGEU president Joan Jessome said the union has essentially been shut out of the talks between the Nova Scotia government and Dalhousie, despite the potential crucial impacts that could result regarding such issues as job security, pensions, vacation time and other benefits, including long-time public service awards.
And in cases where an individual's position as a civil servant pays more than at Dalhousie, they would be "red circled", or have their pay frozen, for whatever period of time it takes their university counterparts to catch up, which could be years.
Tompkins said there is no question that Dalhousie does not want to come to agreement with the union on such issues.
"Dalhousie apparently has no real interest in agreeing much with anything," he said, suggesting the university is "playing hardball" in attempting to generate funding and accumulate as much NSAC property and other assets as it can in the merger.
The union is suggesting that NSAC employees be broken into two bargaining units, with one representing faculty and the other to represent all remaining employees.
"It comes down to the government having the political will to protect the employees," he said.
"They have a different way of doing things," Jessome added of Dalhousie.
A number of unidentified individuals posed questions from the floor about the process, with one speaker expressing discontent with Truro-Bible Hill MLA Lenore Zann, whom she feel believes everyone should be happy with the merger.
"But not everyone is happy," the woman said. "My concern is, this is an individual (Zann) who is going to vote on the legislation."
And while the NSAC faculty were recently given pay hikes to bring them more in line with Dalhousie professors, that does not mean all faculty members are fully in agreement with the way things are unfolding.
"I'm a faculty member and I'm not against the concept of merger," one man said. "I think faculty do have lots of concerns."
Although he said the merger may not result in any faculty members actually losing their jobs, the man raised the point that positions vacated through retirement may go unfilled "... and so we may not be able to carry out our mandate in the future."
Jessome and Tompkins urged the audience to contact their elected representatives "of all stripes" in an effort to hold the NDP government accountable to protecting employee rights.
"This is winnable, we just have to keep the pressure on," Jessome said.
Another union meeting is planned for next Monday.
Lenore you say that you are concerned about the merger, but have you ever met with the students to listen or see their concerns? Currently the concerns of the NSAC student body seem to be going unanswered and little information is circulating about the merger. How about coming in and holding an open discussion with students about what is going on, so you can take our concerns back to the legislature. I can almost guarantee that the concerns of the student body are different then the concerns reflected by the employees.