Security officers with the Laurentian University Staff Union (LUSU) have voted to give their union a strike mandate.

According to a press release from LUSU, the union gave a notice to bargain in mid-July, but the university “breached the first face to face deadline mandated in August, and did not make themselves available to come to the table until Sept. 9.”

LUSU represents 16 full time and casual security officers, as well as 250 clerical, technical, service, administrative, and maintenance personnel. The main unit of LUSU successfully negotiated their most recent collective agreement in August 2009.

Another staff union at the university, OPSEU Local 677, has been on strike against the Northern Ontario School of Medicine since Aug. 16.

“LUSU wants to make it clear to the public that our major issues are not monetary,” Tracy Oost, the union's president and chief negotiator, said. 

“We realize that the university is under some financial constraints, however, that makes this the perfect opportunity to work on contract language. Working conditions for these members are not to the same standard as our main unit, and that is what we are focused on during these tough times.”

Conciliation dates have been set for Nov. 15-16.

“We are hoping that at that time the university comes to the table prepared to work out a settlement," Oost said. "So far they have merely done what Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal Party have asked them to do, and not only proffered a wage freeze, but have tried to stall the whole bargaining process as long as possible.”

“It is not acceptable to LUSU for the provincial government to interfere in its own legislated collective bargaining process.  There is much more to collective bargaining than just wages.”