U of M faculty strike holds students hostage, says picket-crossing prof

A professor at the University of Manitoba has crossed the picket line set up by his colleagues, accusing them of holding students hostage by going on strike.

"I have no issue crossing the picket line whatsoever. Ultimately, the students are my greatest priority," said James Blatz, a professor in the civil engineering department at the university.

"When I look in the classroom I see a tremendous amount of anxiety and concern. This [strike] is probably going to impact their plans that are already in place for graduation times, if delays are incurred."

He said he's endured other university strikes, including as an undergraduate student in 1995, and can relate to the stress.

More than 1,200 faculty members at the U of M's Fort Garry and Bannatyne campuses went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, impacting 30,000 students. The pickets went up again Wednesday morning and University of Manitoba Faculty Association president Mark Hudson said that until a new deal is reached, they will go up every weekday from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m.

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Many classes are taught by non-bargaining members — teaching assistants and sessional instructors — and those continue as usual.

• ​Info on courses, classroom scheduling and service changes can be found on the university's website.

Blatz, who has been a UMFA member since January, was on the administration side for seven years prior to that. He disagrees with the association's claims that workloads are overly demanding — "I'm certainly not seeing that" — and that evaluations around tenure and promotion are unfair.

"We live in a world, as academics, where we're constantly evaluated when we apply for funding with granting councils," he said. "It's consistent for the university to do the same thing to ensure we're meeting those requirements."

Blatz claims many young faculty members actually want evaluations as feedback on how they're doing.

While he doesn't disagree with having discussions about performance metrics and workload, "I just don't think these matters are so significant that, in any way, are academics being treated in such a manner that we need to hold the students hostage," said Blatz.

He criticized UMFA for not trying hard enough to reach a new collective agreement with the university a long time ago. The two sides have been in discussions since March, when the last deal expired.

Blatz said there were "limited efforts" made to reach an agreement during the summer.

"A common pattern is to wait until students are in class," he said. "I take exception to that."

Tuition freeze 'created a monster'

The biggest factor in the dispute between UMFA and the U of M is something neither has any control over — a lack of funds — and both sides need to see that, Blatz said.

He blames the previous NDP provincial government for imposing a "completely misguided" tuition freeze that has "created a monster."

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"In order for the university to get to a point where it would have the total funding of some peer institutions, there would have to be a major increase in tuitions or operating grants," he said, adding that's not realistic given the province's financial situation.

"We're living in an underfunded situation and there's no clear path out of that. Everyone needs to get back to the table and solve the problem."

'It's a big step to take'

Hudson said any kind of labour action comes with the possibility some participants will cross the picket line.

"We always know that there are going to be a few members who make the decision not to join us in strike action. It's a pretty big step to take," he said. "They are making a decision that we respect."

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He said UMFA isn't doing anything to discourage professors from crossing. Instead, he said the union tried to create unity in the lead up to bargaining by building consensus before discussions began.

"We spent a year and half before bargaining going around to our members, department by department, doing surveys to find out what are their issues, what are their concerns about the workplace, what do they think we should be putting forward at the bargaining table," Hudson said.

"We took those concerns and we built our proposals on the back of those concerns."

University administration and UMFA were back at the table on Wednesday with the help of a conciliator. The parties will continue negotiations on Thursday.