U of M faculty sets bargaining deadline, potential strike date

Unions representing U of M faculty members and allied health workers have issue upcoming strike notices.

Faculty at the province’s largest university could be hitting the picket lines in the coming weeks.

The University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA) said in a news release it has set a bargaining deadline of March 6 at 11:59 p.m., with a potential strike to start March 10.

Negotiations started in August. According to UMFA, bargaining issues have been pay, working conditions, workload, and childcare.

UMFA President Erik Thomson said faculty have been leaving the university or rejecting job offers because salaries aren’t competitive with other universities across Canada.

“Faculty who do stay are very committed to their students, but their workloads make it difficult to teach high quality courses and mentor graduate students while simultaneously advancing research,” he said in a news release.

This comes after UMFA members voted in early February to authorize the potential strike.

The association represents 1,300 professors, instructors, and librarians at the university.

They have been without a contract since March 2024.

In a statement to CTV News Winnipeg, the university said it made a competitive proposal with an emphasis on enhancing salaries through a combination of general salary increases, amounting to an 11.25 per cent increase over four years, structural adjustments and special adjustments.

“The university is currently attracting and retaining outstanding talent from around the world and has put forward a compensation package that will support an increasingly competitive position,” the university said.

It added it continues to bargain in good faith with UMFA with the intention of concluding a collective agreement without a labour disruption.