Dalhousie University board and faculty ratify new labour agreement

CITYnews halifax / By Emily Baron Cadloff, The Canadian Press

The union representing nearly 1,000 Dalhousie University professors and other teaching staff has voted to accept a new collective agreement, bringing an end to a nearly month-long labour dispute.

The Dalhousie Faculty Association said their members overwhelmingly supported the new three-year agreement.

Out of 939 members who voted, the association said 899 were in favour of the agreement.

“Our membership was strong and unified throughout this entire ordeal,” said DFA President David Westwood. “We didn’t get everything we wanted – that’s to be expected – but we made significant gains in a number of areas important to our members.”

The association also said the vote also had a participation rate of nearly 95 per cent.

The deal includes a raise of over 10 per cent over the three years, increased parental leave benefits and a requirement for each faculty to develop workload policies “to ensure a more fair and equitable distribution of workload,” the association said.

The agreement also includes five days of paid leave for Indigenous faculty to observe cultural or traditional days of importance, the association said.

Related:

• Dalhousie University board and faculty ratify new labour agreement
• Dalhousie, faculty association ‘fairly close’ to a deal, union president says
• Dalhousie, faculty association reach tentative deal to end lockout

While the association said faculty members would return to work on Thursday, classes would resume on Sept. 23.

However, additional schedule changes, such as dates of final exams, have not yet been finalized.

“Are we going to have to give up some of our vacation, or add to the end (of the semester)? What’s going to happen? Are we going to do a big push now to start a course that we’re halfway into?” asked Johnny Aitchison, a second-year student.

Dalhousie’s administration locked out faculty on Aug. 20, and union members began their strike two days later.

The union had argued that wages have not kept up with inflation. Salaries can vary dramatically across seniority, type of instruction, and department. At the high end, some senior faculty earn roughly $240,000 per year. On the low end, the salary scale for some technology instructors starts around $56,000 per year.

The association said the new deal included salary adjustments between $1,500 and $5,000 for early career faculty who join the university at a rank other than full professor.

Prior to the lockout, the university had offered a six per cent salary raise over three years, with an increase of two per cent per year. The faculty association countered with an ask of 14.25 per cent over three years.

Some Dalhousie students have planned a sit-in on campus on Thursday to protest for a tuition refund.

“It’s not fair for us to pay 100 per cent of our tuition for a semester where we’re only going to get 80 per cent,” says Rose Silivestru, a law student who runs the DalLockedOut Instagram account, which has posted updates throughout the lockout and strike.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2025