October 7, 2008

Dear Colleagues

MOFA strongly supports your efforts to obtain a reasonable and fair settlement with Brandon University Board of Governors. Although there are numerous issues at stake, we are particularly struck by the importance for BU and the Province of substantial salary improvements and a just Respectful Workplace Policy.

With respect to salary, it is clear that BU faculty are seriously underpaid relative to other faculty in Canada. Statistics Canada data indicates, for example, that BU Associate and Full Professors near the top of their ranks in 2007 were paid about $30,000 per year less than comparable faculty at universities such as Laurentian and Brock. This is a disparity that can only further damage Manitoba's already struggling university system.

The issue of the Respectful Workplace Policy is similarly critical for the well-being of our institutions and the Province. That a Board would adopt a policy with minimal consideration of concerns raised by Faculty and then expect it (along with future unspecified Board-driven changes) to be simply included in a Collective Agreement without negotiation smacks of the rankest hubris and quite rightly raises concerns about the legitimacy of complaints and due process.

Because of these and other issues, MOFA stands firmly with you in your struggle with what appears increasingly to be an intransigent Board of Governors that seems unable to appreciate the harm that it does to BU and the Province BU is intended to serve through Faculty teaching and scholarship.

Keep up the just fight!