Striking Up Conversations With Other Unions

By Mark Golden, UWFA External Relations Officer

UWFA has formal links with other unions through its membership in the Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, Winnipeg Labour Council and the Manitoba Federation of Labour. These links find their most practical expression during strikes or lockouts. Though UWFA members have regularly voted to give the executive the option of taking job action during negotiations, we have never struck (or been locked out). Other unions have been less fortunate or more determined. UWFA often offers support to those who find themselves on the picket line. Though faculty unions which strike or are locked out receive financial support through the CAUT Defence Fund — to which UWFA makes annual payments — UWFA often makes a small additional contribution, and sometimes sends a delegation to bolster picket lines. For example, many UWFA members joined instructors in the Brandon University psychiatric nursing program in picketing the Rice Building two years ago, a carload drove up to U of M to support striking members of the Canadian Auto Workers  in October 2007 and another was set to help locked-out AESES workers there last month when a settlement was reached. (This was not necessarily a direct consequence.) Such expressions of solidarity are not confined to university campuses. Though Terry MacLeod, CBC Radio’s morning man, has one of Winnipeg’s most recognizable voices, some UWFA members first heard it in conversation while they walked the Portage Avenue picket line in 2005. UWFA members can count on similar support from other unions here and outside Winnipeg if our negotiations lead to a strike or lockout.