The University of Manitoba violated provincial labour law and a collective agreement when it tried to remove coaching positions from the faculty union, a tribunal has ruled.

In a strongly-worded decision released last month, the Manitoba Labour Board found the university evaded the existing contract with the University of Manitoba Faculty Association when it imposed non union contracts for six varsity coaches holding full-time instructor positions.

The board also ruled the university administration acted in contravention of sections of the province’s Labour Relations Act, when it entered into private employment agreements directly with the unionized coaches and interfered with the exclusive bargaining agency of the union.

“This is a significant ruling by the Manitoba Labour Board,” said Neil Tudiver, assistant executive director of CAUT. “It upholds the appropriateness of bargaining unit membership for a small category that isn’t always included.”

The labour dispute was fuelled by the university excluding UMFA from its decision to offer appointments under a new employment model and from a meeting between the administration and the coaches in December 2005.

The board heard that during the meeting, the coaches were told their continuing employment hinged on accepting appointments under the new model — without rank and outside of UMFA.

“The manner in which the university elected to implement its new employment model for coaches violated the Act and constituted an unfair labour practice . . . We agree with the position of UMFA that the university offered incentives and made threats to the coaches continued employment in order to encourage them to cease being members of the union,” the board wrote.

UMFA president Brenda Austin-Smith said she was delighted “with the ruling and the detailed decisions that accompany it. At the same time, it’s hard to express the depth of my outrage at the treatment of UMFA members by the administration.”

According to the labour board report, the “university’s actions in imposing the new non-union employment model and denying academic rank based upon improper considerations were deliberate and calculated to effectively deny the (coaches) the ability to be UMFA members. Those actions had the effect of profoundly interfering with the administration of the union by eliminating positions from the bargaining unit in order to skirt the provisions of the collective agreement.”

“It’s heartening that the board pulls no punches, referring to the plan to strip UMFA members of academic rank and pull them out of the unit as a ‘scheme,’ something ‘deliberate’ and ‘calculated’ and that their tactics against our members were indeed ‘threats,’” said Austin-Smith.

The report concludes that such actions “do not encourage healthy or stable bargaining relationships.”

The university has asked the board to review its decision.