BUFA scoffs at more conciliation

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This article was published 18/11/2011 (5413 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon University Faculty Association says it was blindsided with a demand for a Thursday conciliation meeting with Brandon University administration even though negotiating sessions were ongoing to settle a 38-day faculty strike.

BUFA president Joe Dolecki said both sides were trading proposals — including a four-year contract concept submitted by BUFA — when they received a letter from conciliator Dennis Harrison requesting another conciliation session for Thursday afternoon.

“We are calling on the university to stop playing legal games with us, in particular this business with the conciliator, and to tell the government, especially Conciliation Services, to stop playing games with us and to sit down at the table and resolve this thing. We are not that far apart and we are confident if cooler heads prevailed …that we could conclude this and have an era of labour peace.”

When asked what was holding up an agreement, Dolecki replied: “They are,” referring to administration.

“We are determined to resolve this matter at the table and we can do it,” Dolecki said. “We could do it today. All it takes is a molecule of will from the other side.”

Dolecki said in a letter to Manitoba Labour Minister Jennifer Howard that the conciliation process ended on Oct. 21 with the appointment of a mediator and was “disturbed” that Harrison was seeking more meetings.

However, both a government spokeswoman for Howard and Brandon University chief negotiator Grant Mitchell said the government never considered the conciliator’s work to have been completed.

“We are in conciliation,” Mitchell said. “That process has never ended. His appointment was effective Oct. 12 and has not been revoked.”

While Dolecki said the two sides are only $220,000 apart over four years, Mitchell said the financial proposals are more like $500,000 apart.

“We saw progress in that they offered a four-year deal, which we had been asking for,” Mitchell said. “We see that as positive. We agreed to a wage agreement on the fourth year, but we are more than $200,000 apart because they want one per cent more on the second year and they want to be paid for the time they are on strike. Not 100 cents on the dollar, but a significant portion of it.

“I’d estimate we are a half-million dollars apart right now.”

Dolecki said they want no part of a renewed conciliation process because BUFA believes it is only being done to meet a legal requirement that would enable the administration to demand binding arbitration as early as Dec. 10.

“That belief is based on bad legal advice,” Dolecki said. “There are three conditions required in order for them to legally put forward a request to the labour board. One of them is that conciliation had occurred for 30 days.

“Conciliation ended on Oct. 21, and mediation ended in mid-November, so they are short eight to 10 days. So this is an attempt, in our view, to overcome this problem.”

Mitchell believes, however, that the university has met the legal threshold.

Dolecki then questioned whether the conciliator could be considered impartial under those circumstances, as his services were not requested. Dolecki also said it appears to BUFA that Harrison is helping administration force an unwanted arbitration hearing on the union.

During a Thursday press conference at BUFA strike headquarters, Harrison showed up at the door. In a letter to BUFA requesting a meeting, he had set a time, but was told to go away.

“He’s not going to speak to me, can you tell him to leave?” Dolecki said during the press conference when informed of Harrison’s presence. “Tell him to leave.”

Mitchell alleges later that afternoon, Harrison went back to BUFA headquarters to deliver the administration’s final offer.

“We sent a response to BUFA’s last offer through the conciliation officer, which is the protocol, and they screamed at him, threatened to call the police and refused to receive the offer,” Mitchell said. “Being faced with that behaviour, we emailed our final offer to them after that and to the conciliation officer and we await their response.”

BUFA secretary Bill Paton said Harrison was in BUFA headquarters on Thursday afternoon, and was asked to leave.

Mitchell said if the strike is not resolved by Dec. 12, the university will file the request for arbitration with the Manitoba Labour Board. Dolecki said BUFA would challenge it.

If the arbitration hearing was granted, classes would resume immediately.

However, Dolecki said it would not create labour peace as the contract would not be resolved until March, and that it would only be a six-month contract.

“As early as September, we’ll be back again with the possibility of a similar situation,” Dolecki said. “It is a legal nightmare with no solution, yet it is this path the employer wants to take, is compelling people to take and is being celebrated for taking. It is costly, needless and it will produce nothing in terms of a fair and equitable settlement. It will simply prolong the distance between us.”

Mitchell said a settlement was still possible through negotiations.

“You can always get a settlement if both sides are willing to make a move,” Mitchell said. “They made a move, we made a move. The question is whether they will accept it.”

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com