Since July 2024, members of the APPUSB have been without a renewed collective agreement. It is worth noting that not too long ago, in summer 2023, members of the APPUSB had also mobilized to gain support both within academia and the broader community during a previous round of negotiations. The academic and community support given to APPUSB’s membership was and is indicative of the importance of fostering and sustaining teaching and research excellence for all francophones in Manitoba.

Thanks to this collective endeavour, which involved mediation, on September 5, 2025, the APPUSB finally obtained a renewed collective agreement (2020-2024). The collective agreement marked significant gains for APPUSB members, including reducing the discrepancy in salary between the Université de Saint-Boniface’s faculty and comparable faculty working elsewhere, for instance, teaching staff (rank 7) from the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine in the case of USB’s professional teaching faculty and the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba for regular USB faculty.

However, in current negotiations, the gains that were previously made, including salary parity, now stand to be lost. USB faculty, by virtue of working in a linguistic minority context, cannot be monolingual: they must have proficiency in both official languages. Their workloads often include having to teach more courses per term than comparable faculty at other Manitoban institutions. Even though they arguably have more linguistic skills and teach as many if not more courses, they are paid 84% (16% less) than comparable faculty in Manitoba. However, what the APPUSB membership is demanding is not exclusively monetary: members are also demanding that the fundamental principle of collegiality be upheld, which is to say the recognition of disciplinary and professional expertise as well as the consideration of faculty and student body input at all levels of institutional decision-making. A university cannot fulfill its mandate of teaching and research excellence without its faculty or its student body. 

Unfortunately, bargaining meetings that have taken place over the past few months have not yielded satisfactory or equitable outcomes. The administration seems immutable on the clauses that would see a reduction in teaching loads, salary parity with comparable faculty in other Manitoban institutions, on collegial principles, or even on more basic issues such as reassessing the workload involved in teaching labs or a regular allocation of sabbaticals for regular faculty which is also customary in other academic institutions.

We refuse a widening pay gap and inequitable working conditions compared to our colleagues at other Manitoban institutions. Accepting less now means this gap stands to widen even further over time.

We also refute renegotiating these critical points for future rounds of collective bargaining. These points must stand, whether now or in the future: it is not equitable to require APPUSB members to manage heavier workloads, to forego collegial principles, and to ignore our linguistic proficiency in both official languages, while being compensated 16% less than our colleagues at other Manitoban institutions.

Working conditions such as these are not conducive to fostering excellence, nor do they help in ensuring the institution’s future, the opposite. An equitable work environment attracts and retains top talent, which can only be beneficial for current and future students.

We are demanding a recognition of our skills and competencies, and we consider this a matter of linguistic justice and equity.

While we are nearly unanimous in a strike mandate, members of the APPUSB do not want to strike. What we want is a collective agreement that is consistent with the messaging that the Université de Saint-Boniface is one of the “top employers” in the province. However, if we continue to face this impasse, we will have no other choice than to strike. Through collective action, we will continue to advocate for equitable working conditions as we believe these directly contribute to student success and to the vitality of intellectual life within and beyond the francophone community in Manitoba.