April 12, 2007 - Over 10,000 post-secondary educators in BC's community colleges, university colleges and institutes have ratified a new three year contract. The new agreement, which covers faculty and staff at seventeen of BC's public post-secondary institutions, was reached before the March 31, 2007 expiry date.

"The three year agreement received strong majority support from members in ratification votes conducted over the last several weeks," said Cindy Oliver, President of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators, which represents the faculty and staff in those institutions. "Members will see salary increases ranging from 2.1% to 2.94% per year for the three years of the new agreement," Oliver added. "Members also received a pro-rata $4,000 signing bonus for reaching the new agreement prior to the March 31, 2007 expiry date," Oliver noted.

"The new agreement includes some improvements in benefits. As well, the agreement establishes a policy table that will bring together faculty, senior administrators and provincial government representatives to deal with some of the broader system-wide problems facing BC's post-secondary education system. This policy table provides an important venue for input from faculty, something we believe has been missing in the debate over the future of post-secondary education in the province," Oliver said.

"I'm proud of the work that our bargaining team has done over the last six months to conclude this new agreement. The strong approval demonstrated in the ratification votes shows that our members appreciate that effort as well," Oliver concluded.

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For more information contact:
Phillip Legg
cel (604) 788-2877
plegg@fpse.ca
Staff Representative, Communications & Policy
Federation of Post-Secondary Educators