U of M union welcomes province’s decision to abandon court fight

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This article was published 04/08/2023 (772 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

University of Manitoba Faculty Association members entitled to $19.4 million in court-ordered compensation from the provincial government may have to wait months to receive their hard-won money.

Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen said Thursday the province wouldn’t appeal a July 13 Manitoba Court of Appeal decision that upheld the $19.4-million award to the association for the cost of the 2016 strike and lost wages after the government secretly meddled in contract negotiations.

“It comes as very welcomed news,” said UMFA president Orvie Dingwall. “When the Court of Appeal ruling came a few weeks ago, we had encouraged the government that we hoped they would do the right thing and just accept this ruling.”

As of Friday morning, Dingwall said the union and its legal counsel had not received formal communication from the Manitoba government regarding its decision, and UMFA was awaiting a response from the province.

Attorneys for both the association and the government must conclude legal formalities before the money will be given to members, Dingwall said.

“There’s many Ts to be crossed and Is to be dotted as part of that process, so a news release is really good and it’s a great first indicator coming from the government, but then we’ll have several weeks at least, if not a few months of the lawyers doing the things that they need to do to make everything official,” she said.

In February 2022, Court of King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey determined the Manitoba government owed UMFA millions to address proposed wage increases that never came to be as a result of provincial interference, plus strike-related fees and interest.

The judgment included $15 million worth of payments to academics who worked at the U of M between April 2016 and March 2020 to address lost wage increases, $1.6 million for wages lost amid picketing, and $2.8 million for strike-related costs.

Last month, the Manitoba Court of Appeal upheld the ruling and rejected the provincial government’s appeal.

Cheques will be sent to members once the association is in receipt of the cash, Dingwall said. A process will also be established to determine and review amounts allocated to members.

“We’re anticipating it to be several months,” Dingwall said. “So, if the money is in all our members’ bank accounts by the end of December, then we would see that as really being a great timeline.”

Dingwall said she hopes the sentiment expressed by the Tory government that it’s “time to turn the page” on the UMFA case extends to other labour groups who are fighting for a fair deal.

“We know that there are some really big strikes and lockouts happening right now with a couple more big strike votes to come,” Dingwall said.

“Strikes are there if you absolutely need to have them, but sometimes we could just have the government step out of the way and really respect the rights of workers.”

A request for comment from the justice minister’s office was not returned.

In Manitoba, 1,400 liquor workers have been holding rotating strikes since mid-July, more than 1,000 Manitoba Public Insurance workers are set to hold a strike vote to back contract demands, workers at the provincial Land Titles office are on strike.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca