A motion put forward at the Feb. 27 University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) board of directors meeting calling for the union to publicly support the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA) has been sent to the governance committee for review.
Motion 0645, which was moved by student-at-large Victoria Romero, called for UMSU to “publicly express solidarity with UMFA and public support of their collective bargaining demands.”
It also asked for UMSU to “officially call on the University of Manitoba administration to accept the UMFA demands of this round of collective bargaining and express official UMSU support for UMFA to the UM administration.”
The motion comes amid continued bargaining efforts between the U of M and UMFA, who have been in active negotiations since October 2024 over a new collective agreement.
After being seconded by Arts Student Body Council UMSU director Gurpahul Kaur, interim board chairperson Yashas Samtani announced that the motion would be referred to governance committee for a two-week referral period.
“Because the contents of this motion pushes UMSU to take a position, because that is under the purview of governance committee, it would be referred to governance,” said UMSU president Divya Sharma.
Per UMSU’s governance and operations manual, a motion moved by a student-at-large that is seconded will be referred to a relevant sub-committee at the discretion of the board chair for consideration.
After the referral period, the motion would be reintroduced at the next scheduled board meeting for substantive voting for it to be debated, discussed and voted on, according to Samtani.
Motion not to be voted on until March 20, earlier vote possible
Following the passing of a separate motion directly afterwards, which pushed the next board meeting back one week due to a scheduling conflict, the motion would not be reintroduced to the board until March 20.
Samtani noted that the board chair can expedite the referral period — or waive it entirely — but said that he could not make that call.
“Me not occupying the office of the chair in a permanent capacity, just being here in the interim for the duration of this meeting, [I] do not currently have that discretion or jurisdiction,” he said.
Romero stated she originally submitted the motion as an emergency motion last meeting to the acting chair Christopher Yendt, which was denied and pushed to the current meeting.
The UMSU governance and operations manual dictates that emergency motions may be considered by the board of directors if the chair rules that the motion is time-sensitive and could not have been brought forward earlier.
“What I’ll do here is just declare a recess of this meeting for 10 minutes while I look over the receipts and the emails and determine whether this motion can be regarded to be initially submitted as an emergency motion,” said Samtani.
“What we decided to do is have this motion resubmitted in an emergency capacity, subsequent to which the acting chair, [Christopher], will implement their discretion to have a special meeting scheduled for next week ideally, on an expedited time frame,” he stated after the recess.
Samtani said that the motion is still referred to governance committee which is expected to operate on the expedited timeframe.
UMFA strike could come as early as March 10
The following day, a press release was sent out by UMFA indicating that the faculty association has set a bargaining deadline of Thursday, March 6 at 11:59 p.m., with a potential to strike starting as early as Monday, March 10.
Negotiations between the U of M and UMFA resume on March 3 and 4, according to the press release.
