The University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) is slamming Winnipeg Transit, saying U of M students are being taken for a ride.

UMSU issued a press release Friday blasting Winnipeg Transit for its “failure to negotiate in good faith” by reneging on a pledge to help cover the implementation costs for the Universal Bus Pass Program (U-Pass), which has generated over $5,000,000 of predictable income for Transit as well as the over $100,000 a month UMSU remits in sales on Transit’s behalf, according to the students union’s figures.

As well, UMSU is upset that the Fall Term U-Pass is not being extended until the new end of the term that was pushed back to Jan. 17 due to the three-week faculty strike in November.

“The way I see it, they’re stealing student dollars,” said UMSU president Tanjit Nagra. “We have a contract with Transit for the U-Pass and we were promised that we would be given $27,000 back worth of implementation costs which no one had discussed until a new executive team was a part of the negotiations. I think it’s unfortunate that they didn’t give us support when we were lobbying the mayor’s EPC.”

Earlier this year, UMSU representatives were told they could apply for a $27,000 grant to help offset costs that are expected to exceed $60,000 next year. But according to UMSU, when Transit submitted their budget request the grant was left out.

“That’s disappointing to hear because my understanding is that they were supposed to be supportive of our grant,” said Adam Pawlak, UMSU vice-president internal. “I always knew it could be under political scrutiny and perhaps be removed at the committee level. But the fact that it was removed before that was disappointing.”

An UMSU delegation appeared before the Executive Policy Committee last Thursday, hoping to get the grant included in the city’s budget. All they were able to get was an assurance that Transit would sit down with them in the new year to discuss potential remedies.

“What that means I don’t know,” said Pawlak. “I’m not sure that a solution will be found at that point because the request was rejected. We’ll see come January.”

As to the Fall Term U-Pass, Pawlak can’t see why Transit can’t be flexible with a situation that was out of the students’ control.

“We’re asking for a small thing and apparently that’s also not justified,” Pawlak said of the 18-day extension.

A city spokeswoman said officials from Transit were unavailable for comment.

Gdawkins@postmedia.com

Twitter: @SunGlenDawkins