University of Northern B.C. offers students credit as faculty strike continues

The University of Northern British Columbia says it will provide a non-refundable financial credit to all students who have been out of class since a strike by faculty began earlier this month.

A post on the university's website says the value of the credit depends on the length of the strike and that will be determined once a new contract is reached with about 180 faculty at the Prince George, B.C.-based university.

The notice informs students that if classes resume on or before Dec. 3, the semester will be extended to Dec. 14 and final exams will be cancelled or delayed but if job action continues past Dec. 3, the semester will pick up in January, delaying the new term.

Wages are a key issue in the strike involving professors and other faculty who walked out Nov. 7, after being without a contract since June.

Talks stalled over the weekend, but a social media post issued by the union says it remains ready to negotiate this week.

About 3,500 students in Prince George and at satellite campuses in Terrace, Prince Rupert, Quesnel and Fort St. John are affected by the dispute, the second in four years at the university after a two-week strike ended in March 2015.