Last week, the Membership Engagement Committee hosted two well-attended member townhalls to discuss AU’s proposal to de-designate 67% of AUFA members. If the university moves ahead with this policy, there will be profound negative impacts on all AUFA members.
Members are understandably upset about this draft policy, and there was a lot of enthusiasm for participating in efforts to apply pressure on AU to walk away from their proposal. Members offered many suggestions to the committee about how members could resist AU’s proposal—from wearing buttons and posting signs in the workplace to disrupting the 50th anniversary celebrations. We are presently evaluating, prioritizing and operationalizing these suggestions.
AUFA’s Strategy
As set out in the townhalls, we presently have a threefold strategy to block AU’s efforts to bust the union.
Consultation: The AUFA executive will be engaging AU in the consultation process required prior to any de-designations. AU has not yet identified the process or timelines of this consultation.
Legal: AUFA is preparing to challenge any de-designations before the Labour Board.
Member actions: Our belief is that a campaign of direct member actions is our best shot at stopping AU’s proposed de-designations.
Member Actions
This week, we’re asking members to join us in four actions to help resist AU’s union-busting:
Academic letter: Assistant, associate and full professors (i.e., those who will remain in the AUFA unit under AU’s proposal) are asked to add their names to an open letter to the Provost requesting that AU abandon its proposed changes.
Testimonials: Those members who are at risk of being excluded from the unit (professionals, coordinators, deans, associate deans, and managers) are asked to write and submit testimonials about the impact of AU’s proposal.
Discuss with supervisors: All staff are asked to raise their concerns with AU’s proposed de-designations with their supervisors. This includes asking your supervisors to query the rationale for AU’s proposal of executive members.
Poster: We will be circulating images for AUFA members to use. Please print and post this member-made poster in your office window (a copy was also attached to the email you received announcing this post). Additional materials will be forthcoming.
Click poster to download
Additional actions will follow in the next few weeks.
Volunteering
Members interested in volunteering to assist with resisting AU’s de-designation proposal can contact the Membership Engagement Committee at engagement@aufa.ca or sign up on the website.
AU’s First Response: Gaslighting
Late last week, AU made a posting on its “Ask the Executive” page about its proposed de-designation. It includes the assertion that “Any discussion of excluding members from the bargaining unit is premature.”
Given the magnitude of the changes proposed by AU, this is clearly gaslighting (i.e., sowing seeds of doubt to cause the recipient to question their own perception). Receiving a proposal to carve two-thirds of the members out of the union is, obviously, exactly the time to begin discussing the exclusion of members.
This gaslighting is likely not surprising for most AUFA members. Our recent membership engagement survey revealed that only 30% of members agreed that they had trust in the senior leadership of the university , and that many members feel put off by AU’s rhetoric.
The most frequently cited complaint was about the substance and tone of communications from AU’s senior leadership. More charitable comments described the communications as superficial and devoid of content, while many more described the communications as disingenuous, putting forth a pleasant façade while major changes were planned in complete secrecy.
Disingenuous communication by AU’s executive has, sadly, become the norm.
Bob Barnetson, Member
AUFA Membership Engagement Committee