First deal reached under Tories’ wage-control bill

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/08/2017 (2970 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Students can begin the fall semester at the University of Manitoba without fear of a faculty strike like the one last year that disrupted classes for three weeks.

The university and its faculty association have reached a four-year tentative agreement.

The deal is significant not only because it is the first public-sector collective bargaining agreement reached under the provincial government’s wage-control Bill 28, but it also extends for a year beyond the terms of the bill.

Bill 28 imposes no wage increases or benefit improvements beyond zero in the first two years, 0.75 per cent in the third year, and 1.0 per cent in the fourth year on the next collective bargaining agreement reached by about 120,000 public-sector workers.

Even before introducing Bill 28 in the legislature, the provincial government had ordered a one-year wage freeze at the university for 2016-2017 and has agreed the freeze year would count as the first year under Bill 28, a condition that does not apply to any other public-sector workers in Manitoba.

U of M Faculty Association president Prof. Janet Morrill said Thursday morning the two sides have agreed on the first three years of the tentative deal at zero, 0.75 and 1.0 per cent, retroactive to April 1, 2017.

“The fourth year, we have a salary reopener. We’ll start negotiations at that time (for the fourth year) in August of 2020,” she said. 

UMFA intends to bargain in 2020 for catch-up salary lost during the imposition of Bill 28, Morrill declared.

“We will have to. Our salaries are already very low compared to other universities. We could lose very good people in the next two years.

“Most universities are settling for 1.5 to two per cent a year,” she said, noting those other Canadian professors are already paid more than faculty at the U of M.

Last November, UMFA members went on strike to improve working conditions after the provincial government imposed the one-year wage freeze.

The tentative agreement includes increased job security for librarians and instructors, workload protection for librarians, and minimum staff complements that cannot be reduced unless the university can prove financial exigency, she said.

The university confirmed there is a tentative agreement, but did not immediately comment.

U of M Students’ Union president Tanjit Nagra applauded the tentative deal. On July 4, students demanded the two sides get a deal done by early September.

“We are extremely optimistic going into the fall term with this news,” said Nagra. “This goes to show how powerful the student body is, and we are very appreciative of our professors and university for expediting this process and for taking student concerns seriously.”

The provincial government declined to comment Thursday because the settlement is still tentative.

Premier Brian Pallister and Finance Minister Cameron Friesen have consistently declined to speculate on how the province would react if public-sector deals were reached which extended beyond the length of the wage controls.

The Tories have passed Bill 28 but not yet proclaimed it. UMFA is among 25 public-sector unions challenging the legislation’s constitutionality in court. 

Morrill said UMFA has not yet set a date to ratify the tentative deal.

About 30,000 health-care workers in various bargaining units have similarly been without a new deal since their collective agreements expired this past March 31.

Further complicating the U of M labour situation is the university and union are awaiting a Manitoba Labour Board ruling on UMFA’s complaint that the U of M bargained in bad faith on the 2016-2017 deal.

At the labour board hearing, the university acknowledged obeying the government’s orders not to divulge to the union during bargaining sessions that the province had ordered a wage freeze.

Shortly before that government order came down in October of 2016, the university’s last monetary offer had been seven per cent over four years.

Earlier in 2016, the University of Winnipeg Faculty Association accepted a 7.5 per cent deal over 54 months. The union’s bargaining team advised U of W members to grab the money before Pallister got involved. At the time, UMFA leaders dismissed doing the same, telling its members the provincial government would not intervene.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca