For Immediate Release
University of Ottawa IT Professionals (UOITP) considering possible job action this week
Ottawa, September 11, 2017 – University of Ottawa Information Technology Professionals (UOITP) represented by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) will be studying their options this week as a mediator tries to resolve a weeks-long impasse at the bargaining table.
UOITP members are fighting to maintain the highest level of support to the university’s academics, researchers, staff and students, but are faced with an employer who refuses to include job security provisions in their collective agreement. The University continues to seek to contract out jobs and attack UOITP members’ acquired rights, while opposing every constructive union proposal on retirement security, pay and benefits.
A petition is being circulated calling on members of the university community to show their support for union members, who are at risk of being locked out. An information session is also planned on campus at Vanier Hall today at noon to raise awareness of the issues at stake.
“Contracting out IT expertise in a centre for higher learning is nothing less than programming services to fail,” says PIPSC President Debi Daviau. “For the sake of students and other key stakeholders, the University should focus on retaining its professional staff, not outsourcing and phony cost savings.”
UOITP members will be in a legal strike position on September 16. “We remain hopeful that the mediator will achieve meaningful results this week, and that we won’t be forced to engage in job actions that could impact students,” concluded Daviau.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada represents some 55,000 professionals across Canada’s federal and provincial public sectors, including some 240 Information Technology specialists at the University of Ottawa.
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For further information:
Pierre Villon
(613) 228-6310 ext 4928 (office)
or (613) 794-9369 (cell.)
pvillon@pipsc.ca