In a two-page letter sent to the Daily News late yesterday(Tuesday, Feb. 6), McMaster University Staff Association president Barry Diacon refutes a number of statements reported in an article posted on the Daily News on Feb. 5.

Diacon writes that the article, “Staff association's negotiating committee walks away from bargaining table”, contains a number of “misstatements in the quotations attributed to Mark Haley.”

Most significantly, Diacon writes that “at no time did we ever say that we were calling a strike vote. We were always acting in accordance with the law. The recent change to the Labour Relations Act (OLRA), Bill 139, requires a separate vote to accept or reject the Employer's offer…We never said we were calling for a strike vote at this time because that would be against the OLRA. Therefore, it is absolutely clear that we have never changed our position on the nature of what the vote is about on February 12.”

Diacon also states that filing for a “No Board” report was necessary to move talks along.

The letter refers, point by point, to other statements made in the Feb. 5 article about the following:

7 MUSA broke off negotiations

7 The University felt it was making some progress

7 The union is unwilling to define its priorities

MUSA has posted the full text of the letter on its Web site. To view, click here.