Pen-llers, et al.,
This is to inform you that the faculty at the University of Manitoba
began a strike yesterday morning (Oct 22) following almost of year
of fruitless negotiations with the administration.
The issues are more bread and butter than the last strike 6 years
ago which was over the retention of tenure and protection of
academic freedom but, nevertheless, are related to protecting the
quality of the university's programs.
Our salaries and benefits are not competitive with other Canadian
universities and, indeed, are way below American standards for
major institutions. For many years we did not hire to replace
retiring and leaving faculty (or hired only sessionals) with the result
that student/faculty ratios rose and we had a paucity of younger
profs. Now student numbers are swelling again and, with a change
in government, more financial resources to hire new staff. Initially,
the university refused to agree that retiring or leaving faculty would
be replaced. However, they finally agreed to a watered down
provision. The problem is, our salary scale is too low such that we
have a great deal of difficulty in recruiting new members. The
university took the position that the majority of the new salary pool
should be used *at the administration's discretion* to boost the
salaries of, and/or recruit, "stars." This would mean that hiring
becomes a central administration decision reflecting what they
perceive as market driven values, rather than a faculty decision
reflecting academic values. At the same time, the *foot soldiers*
who bear the brunt of the teaching and research load would see
their salaries further eroded. (In 4 of the last 8 years, the scale
increase for faculty has been 0%).
The ones most affected (since they are disproportionately
accounted for under recent hires) are women who, if they have
families, are also the least mobile to take advantage of the market.
To try to offset this, we proposed a number of "family friendly" leave
proposals that, because they are based on unemployment
insurance, would actually save the university money while making
us more competitive. Unfortunately, the university have resisted,
apparently because of opposition from the private sector who don't
want such programs introduced into the province. It is another way
the business is interfering in the priorities of the university and the
reflects the growing orientation of the university to business and the
market.
Negotiations were carried out with the aid of a mediator over the
last two weeks. The Faculty Association has accepted the
mediators recommendations (for details of his report, see the
Faculty Association website WWW.umfa.ca). However, the
University rejected his report and walked out of the negotiations.
More details are available on the website. If you would like to give
support to the University of Manitoba Faculty Association, e-mails
to the university president, Dr. Emoke Szathmary
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) would be appreciated. Please
copy to the association ([EMAIL PROTECTED]).
Also, would you please forward this to any other list or organization
that you think would be interested or concerned.
Paul Phillips,
Economics and Labour Studies,
University of Manitoba
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (or [EMAIL PROTECTED])
