Manitoba
University of Manitoba Faculty Strike to Defend Their Rights and Public Education
Professors, instructors and librarians, over 1,200 members of the
University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA), have been on strike
since November 2 after negotiations between the association and the
university administration reached an impasse. The main issue in dispute
is increased salaries needed to recruit and retain staff whose
salaries have been frozen since 2016, with the result that, according
to Statistics Canada data, the university has the second-lowest
average salaries for full-time teaching staff out of the 15 largest
research-intensive universities in Canada.
Striking workers picket Manitoba legislature building in Winnipeg, November 9, 2021.
Earlier this year the Manitoba Court of Appeal upheld a lower
court's ruling that the government acted unlawfully in its
interventions in bargaining at the university in 2016. However, the
UMFA reports that the university has yet to compensate UMFA members for
wage increases that were unlawfully removed from the bargaining table.
The UMFA reports that the University of Manitoba President Michael
Benarroch, after confirming that salaries have fallen behind by eight
per cent compared to inflation alone, "admitted that the government has
once again instructed him to offer salary increases that mimic the Public Services Sustainability Act."
 The Manitoba government introduced the Public Services Sustainability
Act in 2017. It was passed by the legislature and, although never
enacted, has been used to claim a "mandate" to impose wage restrictions
on public sector workers. The wage caps are zero per cent in each of
the first two years of a four-year agreement, 0.75 per
cent in the third year and one per cent in the fourth year. In 2020, a
Court of Queen's Bench judge ruled that the act violated the right of
120,000 public sector union members to meaningful collective
bargaining. The government appealed and the Manitoba Court of Appeal
overturned the lower court decision in October. The Partnership to
Defend
Public Services, a group of unions representing over 100,000 Manitoba
workers, will be seeking leave from the Supreme Court of Canada to
appeal.
In an information bulletin prior to the strike the UMFA informed students:
"The current round of bargaining involves many issues including
equity, diversity and inclusion, childcare, intellectual property, and
more. The most important issue is salary. UMFA salaries have been
frozen since 2016, as part of an austerity agenda embodied in the
still-unproclaimed Public Services Sustainability Act
(PSSA), which was
used to freeze salaries in the public sector. While the legislation was
used to justify freezes for UMFA members, other public-sector workers,
like Nurses and Hydro workers, were able to achieve settlements that
were greater than those outlined in the PSSA."
 The
strike
has the support of the University of Manitoba Students Union, several
student groups on the campus, the Manitoba Nurses' Union
and other unions and the Manitoba Federation of Labour.
Underfunding and low salaries at the university impact not only the
university community but the society as a whole. A health care rally was
organized at the Manitoba Legislature on November 9 by instructors in the
College of Nursing, whose 54 faculty are members of the UMFA. The same
day a letter signed by 40 of the nursing faculty was delivered to Audrey Gordon, Minister of Health and Seniors
Care and Minister of Mental Health, Wellness and Recovery which
outlined the need to create "a salary scale that will attract new
faculty and retain current faculty who can step up to the challenge of
preparing nurses for a health care system in crisis due to the nursing
shortage, a pandemic, and increasing interpersonal violence and moral
distress on the frontline." The letter pointed out that in the past two
years 15 per cent of nursing faculty had retired or left
the college and that nursing instructors and assistant professors earn
salaries that are less than general duty nurses. They drew attention to
the effect of the strike on "all workforce sectors, in particular, the
health care sector" where a prolonged strike "will delay the graduation
of approximately 110 nursing students in Spring 2022, adding more
strain to the severe nursing shortage that exists in Manitoba."
In the health care sector the shortages of trained personnel have
been brought most vividly to public attention over the course of the
pandemic, but it is not just health care that is affected. Government
interference to impose wages that do not even keep up with the cost of
living increase the difficulty of recruitment and retention for public
services, including educators, with far-reaching impact. The demand
of the UMFA for an end to government interference is just and has broad
support.
With their strike the University of Manitoba faculty are defending
their rights and those of their students, pointing out that their
working conditions are students' learning conditions. They are also
standing up and fighting for the public education system upon which the
whole society depends.
This article was published in
November 12, 2021 - No. 106
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO081062.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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