When will the BU strike end?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/11/2011 (5470 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“This intervention into the collective bargaining process at Brandon University is as dangerous as it is outrageous. It confirms for us the pro-employer bias shown by this allegedly ‘labour-friendly’ government throughout this round of negotiations.”

— BUFA president Joe Dolecki in a Nov. 22 press release

“Forty-two.”

— The answer to the Great Question, of Life, the Universe and Everything, according to author Douglas Adams

Tuesday, Nov. 22 marked yet another milestone in the ongoing labour dispute at Brandon University.

As the Brandon Sun first reported in Tuesday’s paper — which happened to be Day 42 of the faculty strike, by the way — Labour and Immigration Minister Jennifer Howard ordered the Brandon University Faculty Association to hold a vote on the latest offer from the university administration.

In a letter she wrote to both Dolecki and Brandon University president Deborah Poff, Howard said she had reviewed the circumstances of the dispute and the “negative effect of the work stoppage” on the BU students and concluded forcing faculty members to accept or reject the last offer “is in the public interest.”

Each member of BUFA will have the opportunity to cast a secret ballot in a vote conducted by the Manitoba Labour Board — a vote that could take place as early as tomorrow.

Of course, Dolecki was less than pleased with the minister’s directive, to say the least.

In response to Howard’s letter, BUFA issued a press release yesterday accusing the normally pro-union NDP of aiding and abetting the university’s “arbitrate at all costs” strategy.

According to Dolecki, the fact that the province has finally decided to intervene in this labour dispute — or at least appear to do so — constitutes a grievous sin against the labour rights of Manitoba’s unionized employees.

To riff off of the late great Douglas Adams, we say “don’t panic” — this is not the end of free collective bargaining as we know it. The Labour Relations Act is still in full force, and in its actions, the government has kept in lock step with that legislation. Heck, depending on the outcome of the vote, it may not be the end of the strike either.

Yet Howard’s decision to push a few union buttons provides us with an instructive answer — we just have to ask the right questions in order to understand her reasoning.

• As many government ministers descend on Brandon for the Association of Manitoba Municipalities annual general meeting, what is the most politically expedient way to put a muzzle on media that question the province’s inaction on the strike?

• How can the government delay having to take any real action — like calling back the legislature and forcing striking faculty back to work?

• And with the government and the union taking a public relations beating as the strike stretches for yet another week, how can the NDP send a not-so-subtle message to Dolecki that his leadership is being questioned?

Answer? Force a vote.

But if enough faculty members are tired of walking the picket line and listening to the university and BUFA executives castigate each other as they wage their relative public relations battles, what happened on Day 42 of this strike could well answer the only question we really care about.

When will this blasted thing end?