Striking faculty union says new deal tabled with University of Manitoba administration

The union representing striking faculty at the University of Manitoba says it’s delivered a new deal to school administrators.

The University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA) said Thursday its latest offer would address issues around recruitment and retention.

“We believe that we have prepared a reasonable and fair offer for the university administration that addresses the concerns our members have been expressing since day one,” said Orvie Dingwall, UMFA president in a release.

“The responsibility for ending the strike now falls in the hands of President Michael Bennaroch. This is a reasonable and fair offer, and we are hopeful that the university administration will accept it and end the strike.”

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Faculty at the school went on strike Tuesday morning after the union and administrators failed to come to an agreement over the latest contract.

According to the union’s release, the offer proposes a three-year agreement that includes two years of two per cent increases and the third year at 2.5 per cent.

They say it also includes increases to recruitment and retention adjustments over the term of the agreement as well as raises for instructors to be in line with librarians, which, they say, would help address compensation and retention issues.

“We know that the university administration has the ability to properly compensate faculty while still leaving additional resources to invest back into students on campus,” said Dingwall.

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“Today, we are presenting this reasonable and fair offer to the administration in the hopes that they will choose to end this strike.”

In a statement posted to the university’s website earlier this week, the school said its last offer before the strike included a two-year monetary proposal with both general salary increases across the board and changes to the salary structure that would increase total salaries an average of 9.5 per cent over two years.

Both sides told Global News they were working to return to the bargaining table Wednesday.

The University of Manitoba Faculty Association union represents more than 1,200 professors, instructors, academic librarians and archivists at the school.

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