Historic morning at Brandon University

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/11/2011 (5468 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon University’s faculty strike will become the longest in the province’s history at 7:32 a.m. this morning — with no end in sight.

The professors’ strike will surpass the record 23-day faculty strike at the University of Manitoba in 1995 as it enters its 24th day.

A mediator has declared an impasse between the two sides, university negotiator Grant Mitchell said Thursday evening.

The two sides entered mediation Oct. 25 far apart on wages, benefits, working conditions and contract language.

The York University faculty strike in 1997 lasted 55 days and the Laval University strike in 1976 went on for four months, Jim Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, said from Ottawa Thursday.

“The important thing is, never in Canadian history has a student lost a term because of a strike. At the end of the strike, the term is extended,” Turk said. Even though they haven’t been paid during a strike, Turk said, “The faculty make up the work so that the students don’t lose their year.”

Two options usually end a university strike, Turk said — the administration realizes that the union members won’t cave in, or the strikers start returning to work. BU tried to encourage strikers to cross the picket lines three weeks ago and it didn’t work, Turk said.

BU students are demanding that BU pay back their tuition for every day that the professors are on strike.

“We have started a petition here on campus calling on the university to refund the tuition lost during the strike. We’re not getting the contact (with professors) hours we’re entitled to,” said BU Students Union president Deandra Tousignant.

Advanced Education Minister Erin Selby said Thursday she’s not getting involved.

“We cannot speculate on what will and will not happen. Our goal all along is to help the two sides come to an agreement as quickly as possible. We trust the university and the faculty will ensure that once the strike is over, they will be serious about their responsibility for ensuring students get the education they paid for,” Selby said.

Professors have rejected Labour Minister Jennifer Howard’s call in an interview with the Free Press for the two sides to go to binding arbitration, in which a provincially appointed arbitrator would choose between their two positions.

“Arbitration is definitely a possibility — it’s something people should think about,” Howard said.

“If the parties both decided that would be the route they wanted to go, we would work as quickly as possible” to appoint an arbitrator, Howard said.

Howard said she would not discuss what, if anything, the government might do should the strike not be resolved. She would not discuss the possibility of legislating an end to the strike.

“I’m not going to talk about what-ifs,” Howard said.

BUFA executive member Prof. Bill Paton said that if Howard thinks arbitration is a good idea, she should come to Brandon and tell that to the strikers. “Basically, we believe in collective bargaining, that these things can be resolved at the table,” Paton said.

Tousignant said with the second lengthy strike in three years, BU students want both sides to negotiate a deal that satisfies both sides.

“Students have voiced the concern that if we go to arbitration and the two sides can’t agree, we’ll be back here in three years” with another strike, Tousignant said.

Meanwhile, BU board of governors chairwoman Laura McDougald-Williams said the board of governors will not get involved, despite BUSU’s efforts to bring student and community pressure on the governors.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

What’s on (and off) the table

 

Brandon University has offered its professors 0.5, 1.0, and 2.9 per cent wage increases over three years. The university is willing to go to arbitration on the entire package of wages, benefits, working conditions and contract language.

An arbitrator would choose between the two sides’ positions.

The BU faculty association says it will take that amount of money offered, but wants the money packaged as 2.4 per cent in the first year and 2.0 in the second. BUFA offered to send the third year to an arbitrator but university negotiator Grant Mitchell said the faculty association withdrew its arbitration proposal on Thursday.

Meanwhile, BU president Deborah Poff issued a warning. “There will be significant budget cuts even with the adoption of the university’s financial proposal. Accepting the union’s salary demands would mean significant unbudgeted additional cuts to programs and positions that will have a negative effect on university programs and our students.”