Dear Mr. Caldwell,

I am a lecturer at Brandon University and I am writing to you, as my MLA, to express my disappointment with your party's actions with regards to the strike by the faculty association.

Life in Brandon has been greatly disrupted by the strike at Brandon University. Nobody wants a strike. It will hurt the students if they lose a term. The problem is that students were being hurt before the strike and will continue to be hurt until their university provides a decent learning environment. As it stands, the university has trouble attracting and retaining faculty and it does not understand the need for replacing faculty that are on leave. The result is that students are trying to learn in an environment that is in constant turmoil and many students cannot finish a four-year degree in four years. The fact that there have been two strikes in 10 years should make it obvious that this is an environment with systemic problems.

It has long been clear that the university does not want to negotiate. It is also clear that the university does not want to reveal what is really going on. Every press release has provided "information" which is, at best, misleading. As an example, the university recently published a list of "salaries" of employees. The reason I put salaries in quotes is that the figures are NOT salaries but total compensation - including overload and administrative payments. In addition, the list only includes individuals that made more than $50,000. My own annual compensation, which was about $20,000 for that year, and salaries of many other individuals are ignored. The result is that this document makes it look like the university is providing much higher wages than is actually the case.

All of this leads me to the reason for this letter: the NDP government's statements about this strike. The Manitoba NDP party principles (http://todaysndp.mb.ca/new07/node/58) take only 12 lines of text and the word "cooperation", or variations, appears three times. The principles also state that the party should be giving individuals greater control in their workplace. Recent calls by the premier and his ministers for binding arbitration fly in the face of these principles. If cooperation and individual control are important to this party, why do the premier and his ministers want to impose binding arbitration on a union that does not want it? Why is it not asking the university administration to cooperate with its workers?

I will end with a request that the NDP government honour its principles and that the premier live up to his statement to the CUPE Manitoba Convention in April, 2005:

"We always will respect free collective bargaining"

Yours sincerely,

Drew Hoysak

Brandon, Manitoba

Dear Mr. Hoysak ,

Thank you for your thoughtful message. I was in communication with the Premier's office as recently as late yesterday afternoon on this matter, when I learned that only 11 minutes (!) of negotiation had taken place in the previous 24 hours. As you know, this is an issue of free collective bargaining between two parties and there is a limited, and some would argue, no role for government intervention. I share your concerns, however, and will continue to urge for a proactive approach. I appreciate your advising me of your perspective and will also relay the same to the provincial government.

Drew Caldwell

MLA Brandon East