Members of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA) have narrowly avoided strike action by voting in favour of an agreement that includes a modest one-time payment for extra work done during the pandemic, but which does not address the unlawful acts of the Pallister government to suppress wages under the now unconstitutional Public Services Sustainability Act.

Less than 55 per cent of voting members accepted the administration’s offer. UMFA President Michael Shaw notes that the membership called off a strike by the smallest margin in the context of the escalating COVID-19 crisis.

“UMFA’s professors, instructors, librarians, and archivists have expressed widespread anger at the University president, Michael Benarroch, as well as the Pallister government, and know they deserve better,” he said. “UMFA will continue to fight for post-secondary education and for investment in public services in the months that come.”