Faculty associations rally around U of M profs

Gord Reid, Toban Staff

Support of the U of M Faculty Association's (UMFA) decision to strike has been pouring in from faculty associations across Canada. The Manitoban has obtained correspondence both offering support to UMFA and condemning the U of M administration's handling of the negotiations.

The faculty strike began at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning, after nine months of negotiation failed to lead to a viable contract. Since then, it has received media attention nationwide.

In a release from the Brandon University Faculty Association (BUFA), the U of M administration is urged "to reconsider and submit to binding arbitration." BUFA, as well as sending members to join the picket lines, is sending UMFA $1000 to aid in the strike effort.

The University of Calgary Faculty Association (UCFA) mentioned in a letter to Keith Findlay, the chair of the U of M's Board of Governors, their disappointment in the board's misrepresentation of Calgary's "redundancy clause."

The letter, signed by Dr. Anton Colijn, the president of UCFA, concludes by supporting the faculty strike.

Support has not been limited to individual faculty associations. Both the Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations (MOFA) and the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) expressed their concern regarding the strike to U of M President Dr. Arnold Naimark.

MOFA urged Naimark and the administration to accept third-party arbitration, accusing the university of being "afraid" to put its position up for evaluation.

"Not only would arbitration bring about and end to the strike, but it would also provide a useful education for the general public about the nature of universities and the crisis now facing them," remarked MOFA president Errol Black.

"A university where deans can lay off at will, without having to establish the bona fides of any financial exigency and without fair procedures, simply means that everyone serves at the pleasure of the dean," CAUT President Dr. Joyce Lorimer stated.

Those who are perfectly bland and deferential will survive, those who are independent and difficult will not."

This article first ran in The Manitoban, Vol. 83, No. 11 (October 25, 1995). How many union acronyms can one man squeeze into one article? Apparently, the limit is five.

What bugged me most about this strike was that the professors were hardly in dire straits when they went on strike. The major issue of contention was a plan by the Board of Governors to establish a procedure to fire tenured professors. Boo- fucking-hoo. God forbid that someone actually try to remove you from your job if you are an incompetent twit, of which a few have taught courses I've taken.

UMFA -- the militant fucks -- went on strike again in 2001 and came within hours of striking in 1998. Cunts. I'm still bitter about losing a semester's worth of work six years ago.