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U of W faculty rejects administration's offer

By: Aldo Santin

Posted: 02/16/2011 7:41 PM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Wesley Hall at the University of Winnipeg.

The U of M narrowly avoided a strike this week and now its cross-town rival U of W is staring down a hostile workforce.

The University of Winnipeg Faculty Association rejected a four-year contract offer from administration in a vote Wednesday, that included a two-year wage freeze.

Faculty association president Kristine Hansen said both sides had been bargaining for a while when administration asked that its most recent offer be presented to the faculty association for a vote.

"The administration asked us to take an offer to the members, after some period of negotiation, and the members rejected it."

The faculty association represents over 400 professors, instructors and librarians. They have been without a contract since March 2010.

The offer rejected Wednesday included a wage freeze in the first two years of a four-year agreement, followed by wage increases of 3.2 per cent and 3.3 per cent in the final two years.

Hansen would not say if the faculty bargaining team had endorsed the administration’s offer.

Hansen said both sides are constrained by a bargaining protocol which limits how much information she can disclose.

Hansen said the faculty have not taken a strike vote and will return to bargaining soon.

Dan Hurley, the U of W associate vice president external affairs, said the outcome of Wednesday’s vote will not prevent a resumption of bargaining.

"We’ll return to the bargaining table and try to move forward."

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

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