Teachers, boards deadlocked in contract talks

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This article was published 01/02/2024 (613 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba teachers are deadlocked with their employer and have accused the latter of “contract stripping” as the two negotiate the first mega-contract for professionals who work in 38 public school divisions in the province.

Unlike their colleagues in Saskatchewan — who are currently participating in rotating strikes, the latest of which is scheduled for today— members of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society forfeited their right to walk off the job long ago.

“We gave up the right to strike in 1956 in favour of binding arbitration, due process and a provincial certification board,” union president Nathan Martindale said in a statement Wednesday.

“But we’re not in a much different situation than our colleagues in Saskatchewan. It’s just that our mechanism for resolving disputes is binding interest arbitration. Otherwise we may well have called on our members to strike.”

Martindale was not made available for an interview and in a statement declined to weigh in on the labour dispute with the Manitoba School Boards Association.

An internal briefing indicates a panel, including arbitrators David Schrom, Ron MacLeod and Michael Werier, is scheduled to begin a hearing on the matter on Oct. 15.

“Differing and firmly held positions on salaries” led to a stalemate, per a Jan. 19 update sent to approximately 16,600 teachers via the employee’s bargaining team.

“MTS seeks harmonization of teacher salary scales, along with adjustments for inflation protection. The employers’ organization has tabled increases that do not keep pace with inflation,” states an excerpt from the email obtained by the Free Press.

The union accused the other side of “contract stripping,” citing the rejection of a proposal that includes employee rights, leaves and working condition clauses that teachers in some parts of the province obtained via previous rounds of local collective bargaining.

Neither the president nor the executive director of MSBA responded to requests for comment.

Independent arbitrators are expected to issue a resolution on teacher salaries at the end of the year. In the meantime, the parties continue to meet to discuss other outstanding issues.

MTS is an outlier in the country and as a result, has “no control over (its) own destiny,” said Andy Hanson, a Toronto historian and researcher who has been studying teacher labour relations since retiring from the profession.

“The disadvantages of a strike are minimal. The advantages are huge: you have the ability to defend yourself; you have the ability to politically move (the employer); you have your self-respect,” said the former teacher and union executive.

Hanson said a strike threat — an option for teachers unions in every other province except Prince Edward Island — typically speeds up negotiations and allows workers to make significant strides on non-monetary benefits.

Proponents of binding arbitration tout the model as one that encourages productive communication between parties because it’s seen as incredibly risky to “outsource” decision-making to a third-party, said Maureen Kilgour, a business professor at the University of Winnipeg with expertise in union-management relations.

“Theoretically, (it sidesteps) the hostility that can come from a strike or lockout,” she said, noting a disruption of “the workplace ecosystem” can cause deep divisions.

She has negotiated contracts for university educators via both strike threats and arbitrator rulings.

While there is research suggesting the latter results in a “marginal advantage” for wage settlements, she noted arbitrators typically decline to weigh in on matters related to workplace culture, including but not limited to promotion opportunities and grievance processes.

Locally, the negotiations between MTS and MSBA mark an inaugural series of province-wide teacher bargaining.

In 2020, the PC government proposed an amendment to the Public Schools Act to align collective agreements and streamline bargaining. The MTS-backed bill received royal assent the following year.

The society’s stance is that all teachers deserve the same rights and benefits so provincial bargaining is “an exercise in equity.”

The last set of collective agreements — division-specific deals between school board representatives and negotiators from MTS locals — expired on June 30, 2022.

For the University of Manitoba’s David Camfield, who teaches labour studies and sociology, the “Cold War context” of the MTS membership vote to surrender striking abilities is noteworthy.

The associate professor said teachers wanted to separate themselves from others and increase their respectability as professionals in the face of a growing anti-communist and anti-radical movement in the 1950s.

“They weren’t going to be rowdy like other unionized workers,” Camfield said.

While there has been limited organizing to regain that right, he said it is highly possible teachers could mobilize en masse.

Hanson said he is skeptical current MTS leaders would spearhead change because they are well-versed in the status-quo process and in their roles as a result.

An overhaul would require extensive training, a vote among teachers and more likely than not, an illegal walkout with widespread support, he said.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca