Compulsory Arbitration and the Right to Strike: The Experience of Alberta’s University Faculty.

Abstract

University academic staff in Alberta operate under a collective bargaining regime in which compulsory arbitration replaces strike/lockout to resolve disputes over contract renewal. How did this come about? And what has the experience been under a regime of interest arbitration? This paper addresses these questions by investigating the origins of faculty association collective agreements in Alberta, tracing arbitral experience over the past thirty years, and looking more closely at a group of four arbitrations in 2001-2003. The paper concludes by asking whether it is time for academic staff associations to assert their fundamental right to strike, regardless of what is in their collective agreements or in the statute governing their collective bargaining.