Campus Watch

Strike deadline fixed at UNB, UVic to vote on new union

University of New Brunswick academic staff has voted on a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Jan.13.


The union, Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers (AUNBT), represents about 800 staff members across the campuses of the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton, and Bathurst.


According to <em>The Canadian Press</em>, the main issues the union is addressing are wages and workload. The AUNBT website states that the organization is &ldquo;working to arrange a general membership meeting for Thursday, Jan. 8.&rdquo;


Meanwhile, the faculty association at the University of Victoria is set to vote as early as next week to form a new faculty union, reports <em>Times Colonist</em>. Over 500 professors and librarians have signed union cards, accounting for 63 per cent of the association.


Association Vice-President Jason Price is confident in the union motion passing: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s such an overwhelming number of cards that we could survive any challenge.&rdquo;


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“Don’t boycott Israel!”

Protests in Washington, D.C. have started in response to the American Studies Association (ASA) academics vote to boycott Israeli academic institutions.


Approved by 66 per cent of its 1,252 votes, scholars have attempted to isolate and boycott Israeli research material in response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


The president of the ASA responding to a <em>Washington Post</em> query, said that &ldquo;Because the U.S. contributed materially to the Israeli occupation, through significant financial and military aid &mdash; and, as such, is an important ally of the Israeli state &mdash; and because the occupation daily confiscates Palestinian land and devastates Palestinian lives, the ASA resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions takes on a particular urgency.&rdquo;


The presidents of Virginia Tech and Johns Hopkins University, among others, have denounced the ban. Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Duke, Stanford, Harvard, Brown, the University of Chicago, and New York University have also joined the protest, according to the <em>Jersualem Post</em>.


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