Cape Breton University (Photo: cbu.ca)

Administration and support staff at Cape Breton University will not be on campus when the fall semester gets underway next week.

CUPE local 3131, which represents CBU’s admin and support staff, announced today that 93.5 percent of their membership have voted in favour of a strike. The union represents around 90 workers who work in various roles throughout the university, including IT, Finance, the Office of the Registrar, Student Services, the Library, and Recruitment.

They’ve been negotiating with CBU since March, when their contract expired, but have been unable to reach an agreement. The workers want the university to provide them with the same benefits and incentives as the rest of CBU’s employees, such as vacation leave, sick time, overtime meal allowances, and stand by pay.

Like many other unions across the country, CUPE 3131 is also asking for increased salaries amidst the financial stress many people are facing due to inflation. They say that almost 50 percent of their members struggle to pay their monthly bills and must hold off on necessary spending in order to make ends meet while working full time. Meanwhile, they say upper management of CBU has seen a cumulative salary increase of 177 percent between 2010 and 2020.

“We’re facing record inflation, a housing crisis, and natural disaster after natural disaster and the wages we’re being paid just aren’t going to cut it anymore,” said Allana Serroul, Local 3131 president, in a news release.

With classes about to begin, it’s safe to say that students and faculty will miss the services provided by the admin and support staff, should the strike go forward.