NDP orders Brandon faculty to vote on offer

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This article was published 23/11/2011 (5409 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In an unprecedented move that’s causing dismay in Manitoba union and left-wing circles, the Selinger government has ordered striking workers to vote on an employer’s final offer.

Labour Minister Jennifer Howard took the extraordinary step Monday in a dispute between Brandon University and 240 striking university professors. The decision was announced Tuesday.

The Manitoba Labour Board will conduct the vote, which the government ordered to be carried out “immediately.” The board will meet with representatives of the two sides in Winnipeg this morning to work out details, including the vote’s timing.

The NDP government had come under increasing pressure to take action to end the strike, which today enters its 43rd day. The university’s more than 3,000 students fear they could lose an entire term of studies if the dispute drags on.

Howard said in an interview the two sides appeared to make little progress after the university tabled its final offer late last week.

“This is an exceptional circumstance where negotiation is just not leading to an agreement, and the public interest is being harmed and students are being harmed because of that,” she said.

The order infuriated the Brandon University Faculty Association, which wants to continue bargaining. “This intervention into the collective bargaining process… is as dangerous as it is outrageous,” BUFA president and chief negotiator Joe Dolecki said Tuesday.

The labour board could order a vote for as early as Thursday, but Dolecki said it could be put off as late as next week so proper notice can be given to the university’s far-flung staff.

The union disagrees with the government that talks were not progressing. The two sides were close on a wage package — the main stumbling block, negotiators say. However, the two sides did get bogged down over the details of a back-to-work protocol.

The NDP, in 12 years in office, had never used a clause in provincial labour law empowering the minister to order workers to vote on an employer’s offer. The move surprised and disappointed the Manitoba Federation of Labour, which is politically affiliated with the party.

“It’s unfortunate that this is where we’re at,” said Kevin Rebeck, the MFL’s president, choosing his words carefully Tuesday.

Rebeck said it’s yet to be determined what impact the move will have on collective bargaining in the province. “It’s certainly something all of labour will be keeping their eye on right now,” he said.

Shauna MacKinnon, Manitoba director of the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, called the government’s actions “extremely unfortunate” and “unnecessary.”

BU negotiator Grant Mitchell, a Winnipeg lawyer, said it wasn’t the administration’s idea to force a faculty vote. “You’d always rather have a settlement that was recommended by the negotiating team to the membership than one that hasn’t been recommended,” he said. “Once this is all over, these parties have to work together to run a successful university. You’d like to avoid things that divide them.”

If faculty members reject the university’s offer, the administration will be in a position Dec. 10, under Manitoba law, to force the union to go to arbitration. It has said that it intends to go that route, if a deal cannot be negotiated.

Meanwhile, the faculty association held an information meeting with striking workers Tuesday afternoon. Bill Paton, a member of the BUFA executive, said afterwards he doubts that professors will accept the university’s contract offer — especially without a back-to-work protocol in place. “That is a nail in the coffin right there,” he said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca