Brandon University strike ends with agreement

 Late Friday evening the Brandon University Administration finally reached an agreement with the faculty union. The strike was the longest university strike in Manitoba history. It began way back on Oct. 12, interrupting the school year a little over a month after classes started. There have been longer university strikes. A strike at Laval University in 1976 in Quebec lasted four months! More recently in 1997 York University faculty went on strike for 55 days. However long strikes or any strikes are the exception rather than the rule.
    Earlier a mediator had suggested binding arbitration to solve the dispute. Although the administration agreed the faculty wanted to continue negotiation. Later Labour minister Jennifer Howard had ordered the faculty to vote on the last administration offer. The vote was to take place next week.
    The tentative deal will allow faculty to return to work as early as next Monday evening a much faster resolution that having to vote on the latest administration offer which the union recommended be rejected. Now the faculty are voting on an agreement that the union supports. It is quite likely to pass.
  The university president Deborah Poff says that the university will make sure that students will be able to complete the school year. Possibilities involve extending the next term and pushing back December exams into the new year. No doubt everyone is relieved that the strike will be over. Solving the crisis through an agreement shows that collective bargaining can work although in this case the two sides took much too long to finally settle.
 
   

Manitoba: Brandon University Faculty to vote on Administration offer

(Brandon Nov. 24) Brandon University faculty will vote on the Administration's latest offer next week. The vote was imposed by the government and will be overseen by the Labor Relations Board. The 240 members of BUFA have been on strike since October 12.
  A mediator had suggested there be binding arbitration but this was not accepted by the union which wanted to continue negotiations. The union has recommended faculty reject the Administration offer and calls the vote a waste of time.
    However given the pressures to end the strike the faculty could very well vote for the offer. Should the offer be rejected Jennifer Howard the minister of Labor and Immigration has said that binding arbitration could be an option.
    The students are perhaps the biggest losers in the strike. Most of the fall term has been lost. Some are demanding their fees back. However, the intention seems to be that the faculty will make up the time after the strike ends. In fact one of the  issues in dispute is compensation for the extra faculty time required to make up this lost class time. For more see this article and also this letter to the editor.