Disrespectfully, Your Lockout Sucked

Hey, Dal? Let’s talk!

Because what was that? You took some really big swings at the start of this school year, and—egg on your face—it was embarrassing. Why are you locking out the DFA; refusing to negotiate with your unions; ignoring student needs and interests; claiming to have a deficit despite your massive ‘surpluses’? It would be funny to watch you stumble this hard if my future weren’t dependent on your success. So, let’s talk, for real, about what it means to be the first research-intensive university in Canada to lock out full-time faculty.

Of course, like any competent union whose members had been locked out, the DFA initiated a defensive strike on the basis that you wouldn’t be paying their members during the lockout and the union didn’t want them to… ya know… starve. Still, despite the incredibly inflammatory lockout, the DFA continued to try and get you to negotiate. In response, you offered interest arbitration (requiring the DFA to drop all demands except narrow salary discussions to accept your offer to negotiate further). During the lockout, you continued to allegedly bargain in public, engage in union-busting behaviours, and skirt the terms you agreed to respect.

If I had a nickel for every time you had a Labour Board Complaint filed against you for allegedly violating the Trade Union Act, I would have two nickels, which actually is a lot of nickels to collect in a three-week period. Not to pull out the basic 1L concepts, but your objective externalizations of intent do not speak to an eagerness to negotiate, compromise, or play fair. After being dragged through the court of public opinion, you returned to conciliation, and good faith negotiation worked: a tentative deal was reached on September 16th and ratified the next day.

You call yourself a community, and I don’t necessarily disagree, but I would rather call you an employer. You don’t actually create community, you just pay the people who do (when they aren’t locked out). Your value as a university comes not from the land you possess or the buildings you maintain, but from the students and educators you have gathered. For the sake of your own longevity, I would expect you to honour this dynamic and treat the people who create your community, invent your programs, teach your classes, take your classes, write the papers that bring you accolades, and otherwise bring you value, with respect and dignity. Yet, at every turn, you fail to uphold the values you swear to stand by.

The effects of these kinds of decisions are far-reaching. You have lost out on a lot of intangibles. Don’t think for one second you are the only institution that can provide your community with what they seek. Girl, there are dozens of universities that only sit below you in the ranks because they don’t have your specific collection of experts in the field. You want to talk about necessity? Your niche isn’t yours. Without profs, you may as well shut your doors and peddle snake oil. Students weren’t fooled; we stood with the DFA; we organized; we confronted your bullying and told you to cut it out because it was embarrassing. And honestly, Dal, this is bigger than one labour dispute. When you decide that your value lies in balancing spreadsheets rather than supporting scholars, you stop being an institution of learning and become a brand with a payroll problem.

You finally reached a deal with the DFA after almost a month of disruption. You called it a “successful resolution.” Successful for whom? For the administration that proved it could outlast its own workers? For CUPE, which ended up with the same tired corporate playbook during their negotiations? For the students who paid for time they will never get? The real cost is in the trust you burned. The faculty will remember. Students will remember. Future applicants will Google “Dalhousie lockout” and see what kind of university you are.

I hope you feel like a winner.

Disrespectfully,

A disillusioned student