As was previously announced, the newly-formed Membership Engagement Committee is preparing to conduct a short telephone survey of 100 members (about 25% of AUFA) in late November to get a better sense of members’ bargaining priorities and persistent workplace issues. Subsequent phone surveys should allow us to contact the entire membership at least once.
This survey is important because we are about to enter another round of bargaining in an extremely challenging context—so challenging that AUFA’s president believes that we are in “the fight of our lives.” With so much on the line, we would be hamstrung to rely solely on passive mechanisms for members to provide input on their priorities.
The committee believes a telephone will capture richer feedback than an online survey. While the committee has crafted thoughtful, well-rounded questions, there will inevitably be important things that we haven’t thought to ask about. We hope that the kind of person-to-person contact this survey requires will help us discover some of those unknown unknowns.
We also hope that conducting multiple surveys over the next year (and hopefully into the future) will help decrease the isolation many of our members feel. Separated and siloed, many of us have very few opportunities to build relationships of trust and solidarity. When you receive a phone call as part of this survey, there will be a human being on the other end who cares about you and about our collective interests.
We’ve designed the survey to be short (about 10 minutes) because we know everyone is overworked and overloaded, but it’s also an opportunity for you to actually talk to someone about the issues that matter to you.
And we hope you do feel safe to speak frankly and honestly. We’re taking all the measures we can to protect your privacy and confidentiality, but you need to be an active part of this too—make sure you’re in a location where you can safely share your opinions. If you work in a fishbowl, make arrangements to take the call while you step out for a quick walk or coffee break.
Ultimately, we hope that these surveys not only help us gather data to support our bargaining team, but also that they help us understand how we as a union can best involve each and every member in the defense of our jobs, our rights, and the principles of publicly supported post-secondary education.
The Membership Engagement Committee wishes to thank the many volunteer callers who will be helping us conduct these surveys. When your name is randomly drawn to participate, we ask that you assist the caller who reaches out to you in finding a mutually agreeable time to conduct the call. As an AUFA member, your voice matters.
If you have any questions about the survey or wish to share some thoughts about bargaining, the employer, or anything else, contact us at engagement@aufa.ca.
Rhiannon Rutherford
Chair, Membership Engagement Committee