Saint Boniface University professors to take strike vote

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This article was published 22/06/2023 (822 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Francophone professors will head to the polls over the weekend to decide whether to give their union a strike mandate amid stalled bargaining talks with Saint Boniface University.

Last week, the faculty association rejected USB’s self-described “offre finale,” citing a sizable gap between the parties’ salary hike expectations.

The latest proposal was tabled June 13, about 2 ½ years after the two sides began negotiating a new contract. The former agreement expired in August 2020.

“It was just so far away from what we consider to be fair,” said Phi-Vân Nguyen, a spokeswoman for l’Association des professeurs et professionnels de l’USB.

“We have one of the heaviest teaching loads (of all university instructors in the province). We are teaching a three-three, which is basically six classes a year.”

USB academics also have research and community service obligations, the latter of which are significant because they are supporting a minority language community — and yet, they are being paid less than colleagues who work elsewhere, Nguyen added.

The Winnipeg-based university’s offer included general wage increases of two per cent, followed by 1.75, two and two, respectively, for an overall hike of 7.75 per cent between 2020-21 and 2023-24.

The faculty association (known as APPUSB) has pitched a 12.75 per cent increase over that period.

Manitoba’s consumer price index rose 7.8 per cent in 2022.

University communications director Nathalie Roche said it is refraining from making any comments on the situation “out of respect” for an ongoing process.

“We are committed to finding a solution for the renewal of APPUSB’s collective agreement,” Roche said in an email.

The union, which represents about 60 professors and teaching professionals, although that figure is constantly fluctuating due to sessional members, is launching a referendum Friday to gauge members’ willingness to strike.

APPUSB has raised concerns existing wages are causing recruitment and retention issues at the university – a claim the University of Manitoba Faculty Association repeated throughout its campaign during a weeks-long strike in the fall of 2021.

“The ultimate ‘loser’ in all of this are the students,” said union leader Patrick Noël. “Sometimes, we have to hire people who don’t have the credentials or… for some courses, we are still online because we can only find people in Quebec.”

The associate professor of history said students have asked why USB continues offering virtual instruction if regular operations have resumed following the end of COVID-19 pandemic health orders, and the answer is all departments are experiencing staffing challenges.

In 2015, USB professors were being paid on par with counterparts at the University of Winnipeg and slightly behind U of M academics, Noël said.

“We’re not even asking for parity. We’ve been really asking just to reduce the gap,” said Nguyen, who indicated USB salaries are 15 per cent lower than U of W’s, and the latter institution only requires permanent academics to teach five courses per year.

Approximately 400 people have participated in the union’s new letter-writing campaign to apply pressure on USB administration to date.

Annual funding for the institution, a pillar in Manitoba’s francophone community, has dwindled throughout the Progressive Conservatives’ government tenure, although USB is receiving a boost in provincial dollars in 2023-24.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the office of Advanced Education Minister Sarah Guillemard noted USB received a funding increase of 13 per cent compared to 2022-23.

“The Manitoba government respects the collective bargaining process and trusts both the employer and employees will keep students’ best interests in mind,” the spokesperson wrote Thursday.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie