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Arbitrator rules U of M must increase salaries for UMFA

Union awarded annual 2.25 per cent increase from 2021 to 2024

NEWS

Colton McKillop, staff The University of Manitoba must increase the salaries of University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA) members, an arbitrator ruled last week.

Arbitrator William Kaplan granted the union salary increases of 2.25 per cent each year from 2021 to 2024.

The university and UMFA agreed to binding arbitration to settle outstanding issues following a strike in 2021 that lasted 35 days.

UMFA president Orvie Dingwall said UMFA is “happy with the decision.”

Dingwall said “2.25 [per cent] is not what we had proposed to the arbitrator but it is more than the university had been offering […] and most importantly, it is going to help us to stay competitive with the other research-intensive universities, the U15, across Canada.”

Kaplan was instructed to disregard any government mandates and instead aim for “reasonable advancement towards” the 25th percentile of salaries in the U15.

Until now, salaries at the University of Manitoba were the second-lowest in the U15, which according to UMFA led to retention and recruitment difficulties — a core issue triggering the strike in 2021.

UMFA was seeking an increase that would bring the university into 11th place in the U15 — 90 per cent of the way toward the 25th percentile in the U15.

Dingwall said that while UMFA is “still running the calculations” on where exactly the salary increase places the U of M in the ranking, it lifts the university out of its current position of 14th place.

Additionally, Kaplan ordered the university to pay faculty for teaching done after the strike.

“When our members came back to work, we were very committed to ensuring students finish their term, even though the timelines were changed, but to do that, they were still then teaching 100 per cent of the term and only getting paid for 100 per cent minus five weeks,” Dingwall explained.

“So the university had some choices. In some faculties, it could have shortened the term, it could have just extended the term even further and instead it chose to condense things and keep things pretty close to a regular year schedule, but that means that our members were essentially teaching five weeks of classes that they weren’t being paid for.”

Kaplan also ruled that UMFA members must be compensated for time spent on continuing research and service responsibilities during the strike. Dingwall pointed out many UMFA members had to fulfil these duties in order to maintain the integrity and safety of their research programs.

“So [those who take care of animals], they were ensuring that the animals were still alive, and we have members who serve on national granting agencies like [the Canadian Institutes of Health Research],” she explained.

“Their granting competitions were taking place and for those to continue, our members still participated even though they were on strike, and that’s what those payments from the arbitrator [go] towards.”

In 2016, the provincial government interfered in UMFA’s contract negotiations by imposing a wage freeze mandate on the university, triggering a 21-day strike.

The Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench recently ruled the province must pay $19.3 million to compensate UMFA for lost wages and strike costs.

Dingwall said she and members of UMFA “certainly hope” this decision can result in more stability in labour relations between UMFA, the university and the government.

“Certainly, having the government interfere in our bargaining starting in 2016 […] has really led to unstable bargaining because […] the university is supposed to be autonomous from the government and the government is not supposed to be engaged in any way in our negotiations with the

staff / Basel Abdelaziz photo /

university,” she said.

“We’re hopeful that this arbitrator’s decision wraps everything up from this round of bargaining and […] that the next time when we come into negotiations, that it’s just us and the university and that we can just — as we have in most other rounds of bargaining since UMFA was created — […] sort things out between the two parties and without the involvement of the government.”

news@themanitoban.com

U of M bursary available to those affected by Ukraine war

Funds also offered to those affected by international conflicts, environmental disaster

NEWS

Colton McKillop, staff The University of Manitoba has earmarked $1 million for an emergency bursary fund to provide financial assistance to students struggling due to the war in Ukraine.

The fund will also be available to students impacted by “international conflicts, environmental catastrophes and extraordinary life events.”

The university has established a webpage featuring links to additional resources for those affected by the war in Ukraine, such as local Ukrainian organizations, federal support and pro bono legal services. There is also a link to donate to the emergency bursaries fund and promotion for fundraisers to support Ukraine.

The bursary will prioritize students needing immediate relief. Benarroch noted that Manitoba is “home to one of the largest populations of Ukraine diaspora in Canada.”

“We do as a university take our obligations to address the crisis very seriously and we’ve come to recognize that war [and] geopolitical events can have a real impact on our international students from across the globe,” he said.

“We need to respond appropriately to assist those students and what we’ve been finding is that these types of crises are creating extreme financial need and stress on our students and we want to be able to respond appropriately to those things.”

Benarroch pointed out the war in Ukraine may be preventing some students from accessing resources they do have. and funds can’t be transferred to them to not only pay their tuition but also to live, eat [and] pay their rent here and as a result of that, we have to step in at this time and provide students with […] support,” he said.

According to Benarroch, previous bursary funds had “limited capabilities” to respond to the needs of students in this crisis.

“What we’re trying to do here is encompass a variety of possible situations in which [students] might face financial distress,” he said.

Benarroch said it was important the university “is in a place where [it] can respond quickly” to these types of crises.

“The unlawful war on Ukraine, in fact, has created hardships for our students and […] it is incumbent on us to respond in support of students and that’s what we’re trying to do here through this bursary fund.”

staff / Basel Abdelaziz photo /

Students facing academic difficulties due to being directly impacted by the war in Ukraine may be eligible for academic accommodations. Additional resources can be found on the University of Manitoba website.

Measuring health equity in First Nations children

Study related to Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action

RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY

Michael Campbell, staff The week of March 21 to March 25 was Health Equity Week in Manitoba. The purpose of the week was to acknowledge and work to improve the equitability of health-care services among diverse communities in Manitoba. The week’s events were supported by Shared Health, CancerCare Manitoba, the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, Healthcare Excellence Canada, Indigenous Health and all five Manitoban regional health authorities.

During Health Equity Week, the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) promoted recent scholarship that addresses the gap in equity between Manitobans. One such study highlighted by MCHP was “Our Children, Our Future: The Health and Well-being of First Nations Children in Manitoba.” This study, first released in 2020, was requested by Manitoba’s Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet to determine whether the calls to action set by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have reduced health-care inequality in Manitoba.

Mariette Chartier, assistant professor in the department of community health sciences and senior research scientist at MCHP, and Leona Star, director of research at the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba (FNHSSM), spoke to the Manitoban about the report.

“Our role within many of [these] research projects is to provide that partnership, to demonstrate that partnership around First Nations self-determination as it relates to our own data, our own stories and our own truths, and being able to interpret those results according to our own understandings and worldview,” said Star.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to action number 19 calls for the federal government to identify and address inequalities in health and medical care between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people living in Canada. The Commission also called for annual progress reports to assess progress toward this goal.

“However, without actually having a baseline of information or a baseline of wellness around First Nations people within Manitoba, it was really hard to measure whether or not that [equity] gap was increasing,” Star said.

Prior to undertaking the project, researchers knew First Nations people live 10 years less on average than all other Manitobans, and the gap was increasing. Researchers also knew major contributors to this gap were the impacts of colonization, racism, access to primary care, access to clean running water and access to housing. “If you put it into the context of having 10 additional years with your loved one and how integral that is to your overall relationship [and] your overall wellness and to see their life cut short as a result of the impacts of colonization,” Star said.

Undertaking such a major, whole-population level study requires enormous forethought and reciprocity with stakeholders. The first step for the authors of the study was to gain consent from the health information research committee at the FNHSSM, which ensures research by and for First Nations is performed with free prior informed consent of individuals and on a collective basis, is conducted under the First Nations’ ethical standards, benefits the First Nations and follows OCAP principles. The OCAP principles ensure that the First Nations retain ownership, control, access and possession of the research conducted.

The project also required the approval of the University of Manitoba’s research ethics board and was subject to the same scrutiny as other research projects at the university. From there, the researchers brought together the project’s knowledge keepers from the five distinct First Nations language groups in Manitoba, including Cree, Ojibway, Dakota, Ojibway-Cree and Dene. Star emphasized the importance of acknowledging the protective factors for children in each of the First Nations and celebrating the differences between the nations, rather than continuing to stigmatize and focus primarily on deficits.

The study used data from the Manitoba Population Research Data Repository held by MCHP. This data includes patients’ visits to hospitals and physicians, public school grades, graduation rates, prosecutions and court appearances, among other publicly collected data. However, these data sets measure health and the social determinants of health from a deficit perspective.

It is also important to recognize the resilience and strength of First Nations communities. Chartier recalled that Nora Murdock, with the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, “would always say, you know, ‘We have to make sure we

provided / Jackie Traverse image /

put hope in there,’ because sometimes we would feel a little hopeless when we looked at those indicators.”

Researchers wanted to consider the wellness of children in a holistic sense. For example, many First Nations people are reclaiming the sacredness of birthing practices. The study found First Nations mothers received inferior prenatal care and had shorter post-natal hospital stays, meaning essential education opportunities for healthy childbirth are missed due to inappropriate care. Considering what supports the wellbeing of a child and how existing systems fail to meet those needs provides a clear path toward reducing inequalities in health.

“As parents, according to our knowledge keepers, and as a family, we all have a duty and responsibility to ensure that our children’s rights are protected and our children live their rights fully and fulfilled in every way,” Star said.