Open letter to the president and the chair of the board of governors

To Michael Benarroch, President and Vice Chancellor;
and Laurel Hyde, Chair, Board of Governors
University of Manitoba

I'm sure you're tired of all these emails and calls related to the strike and ongoing negotiations. I know we're tired of sending them. I am a proud UMFA member and am fully behind my union in the current negotiations. Our priorities are meant to support recruitment and retention, particularly as effect salary and benefits we are able to offer to our professors, instructors, and librarians.

The new offer barely differs from the previous offer, increasing by a total of approximately $225,000 (or about $187.50 per UMFA member).  Not only is this sum an order of magnitude too small, it provides the greatest benefit to only 44 members (with a $4000 lump sum payment, itself more than four times the next largest lump sum payment from the previous offer, which again only benefits a small portion of UMFA membership).

The present and previous governments have apparently learned the folly of demanding, in writing, severe constraints on bargaining as unlawful interference. I accept Ministers Ewasko and Fielding's assurances that there is no such (written) mandate.  But whether written or verbal, such direct interference is at best inappropriate.  

One cannot expect that all the ground lost to inflation and relative to the U15 all at once. But the growing gulf must be addressed, somehow, and immediately. It is vital to the quality and viability of the University that the administration and the board make it clear to Premier Stefanson and her Ministers that you will negotiate with your employee unions freely and fairly, that you will vociferously resist arbitrary and inconsistent political pressures, and that you intend to act only in the best, long-term interests of the University.

Robert Hagiwara, PhD
Department of Linguistics
Currently on legal strike