NSCC Strike??

Community college workers have given the province the required 48 hours’ notice that they plan to strike.

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union, which represents the 900 faculty and staff in the provincewide college system, filed the notice Wednesday with the labour minister, as required under the Trade Union Act.

"We’re not settling on a date just yet," union president Alexis Allen said in an interview.

"It’s really in the government’s ballpark now."

In electronic balloting held across the province Tuesday, about 91 per cent of faculty members voted 93 per cent in favour of striking. Some 96 per cent of professional support employees voted 90 per cent in favour.

They will start receiving strike training next week while the union executive chooses a strike date, Ms. Allen said.

The two sides are at a stalemate and haven’t been at the negotiating table in months. The college workers accuse the Education Department of being unwilling to provide the same 2.9 per cent salary increase and improvements to medical benefits that it gave the province’s public school teachers last year.

Ms. Allen said she’s hoping more money will be made available in the provincial budget, being tabled today, to reach a settlement. She called for Premier Darrell Dexter to step in if nobody else from his government is willing to intervene.

"The silence is deafening in that there’s no response at all from the government," she said.

"It’s unfortunate that it’s gone this far."