Profs slam U of M for labour appeal

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This article was published 27/02/2018 (2759 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

UNIVERSITY of Manitoba professors are accusing school administration of driving relations below even pre-strike levels by appealing an unfair labour practice decision.

The U of M Faculty Association (UMFA) also wants some clarifications from the Manitoba Labour Board on its ruling, said UMFA president Prof. Janet Morrill, adding the university’s actions are putting any future bargaining in peril and casting doubt on any apology for bargaining in bad faith.

The labour board ruled the U of M bargained in bad faith in 2016, when it obeyed orders from the Manitoba government led by Premier Brian Pallister not to tell the union during bargaining the province had ordered a one-year wage freeze.

The board ordered the university to apologize, and to pay each UMFA member up to $2,000, which could cost the U of M some $2.4 million.

University public affairs executive director John Danakas said in a statement: “The university deeply values its relationship with UMFA and its members, and continues to recognize the positive steps forward made recently, most notably the achievement of a four-year agreement between the University and UMFA in September 2017. The review request is part of a legal process, as the university seeks clarification to help guide future negotiations.”

The labour board, however, also ruled the unfair labour practice did not cause the three-week faculty strike in late 2016 — UMFA achieved improvements in working conditions — and would not order professors be paid for what they contended was unpaid work helping students catch up after the strike.

“We’re in agreement with much in the decision, but have asked the board to clarify and possibly reconsider a few of its points,” Morrill told the group’s members in an online post. She did not elaborate on the UMFA website.

Morrill could not be reached Monday.

The university’s decision to appeal “casts doubt on the sincerity of any apology they might deliver as required by the labour board. The ­administration’s reaction also imperils future bargaining as they evidently would do the same thing again in the likely event that the government continues its bullying behind closed doors. A simple apology can go a long way in repairing relationships, and the administration has now denied that possibility,” Morrill wrote.

“It is painful to see our employer react to the board’s decision in this way. Even if the labour board retracts its criticism of the administration’s actions in the current (unfair labour practice), surely it will be a pyrrhic victory if these protracted battles and protests from the administration of their ‘innocence’ bring employee relations, and our university, back to 2016.

“The relationship between UMFA and the administration was at a low point in fall 2016, and I believe both sides had been trying to move forward in small steps since then… It seems like the administration’s current actions are driven by vanity, and take us two steps backwards.”

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca