Standing together with UMFA

URFA stands in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­i­to­ba Fac­ul­ty Asso­ci­a­tion (UMFA) who is seek­ing a fair deal for its 1200-plus mem­bers. UMFA has been nego­ti­at­ing to achieve an agree­ment that pri­or­i­tizes recruit­ing and retain­ing fac­ul­ty. Hav­ing reached an impasse in nego­ti­a­tions, UMFA mem­bers began strik­ing on Novem­ber 2. 

The strug­gles of our col­leagues at UMFA to secure a new agree­ment are not strug­gles they face alone. Part of our pur­pose and mis­sion at URFA is to advo­cate for strong pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tion and to pro­mote sol­i­dar­i­ty with the labour move­ment. At URFA, we join togeth­er with oth­er fac­ul­ty asso­ci­a­tions, labour orga­ni­za­tions and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to express our sol­i­dar­i­ty with the teach­ers, researchers and librar­i­ans UMFA rep­re­sents at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Manitoba.

In this year’s Labour Day mes­sage, URFA Pres­i­dent Britt Hall empha­sized the pow­er of togeth­er­ness. Today, we acti­vate that pow­er through our expres­sions and actions of sol­i­dar­i­ty. URFA will be mak­ing a con­tri­bu­tion to UMFA’s strike fund. Togeth­er, we stand strong and unit­ed in defense of qual­i­ty post-sec­ondary edu­ca­tion. We are with you, UMFA, today and every day until a fair deal is reached. 

URFA mem­bers, con­sid­er shar­ing a mes­sage of sol­i­dar­i­ty with col­leagues at UMFA on their Face­book or Twit­ter accounts.