Negotiations face barriers at ULaval as faculty union calls for 100 new hires

At the Université Laval, the Journal de Québec reports that the “spectre” of a strike has begun to loom over negotiations between the university and the Syndicat des professeurs et professeures de l’Université Laval (SPUL). The collective agreement expired on December 1st, and negotiations have encountered a “blockage” around the union’s primary demands, which include the hiring of 100 additional faculty members. The union argues that the number of professors at the university has decreased over the last two decades while the student body has grown by 26%, but ULaval reportedly states that the number of teachers has increased by 10%, with the student body growth at 33%. SPUL President Louis-Philippe Lampron noted that there have been no “substantive” negotiations since 2016, and that issues such as increased workloads and overworking, salary, and inflation have accumulated since that time. Journal de Québec Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.