This week, the membership engagement committee has an update on consultation and is rolling out three new actions to oppose AU’s proposed designation policy. This proposed change would carve 67% of the members out of AUFA’s bargaining unit.
Update on Consultation
On January 14, AUFA’s executive sent the following email to HR Director Charlene Polege to commence discussion about AU’s proposed policy change.
AU did not acknowledge AUFA’s email or provided any further information for two weeks. Late Wednesday, AU proposed 90-minute consultation meetings with each union between February 7 and 27. The date of AUFA’s consultation has not yet been finalized. AU responded to AUFA’s above email on the day of posting this blog, indicating their desire for rapid consultation over February.
AU’s email contained this passage that is worth unpacking:
We developed the criteria in the draft policy based on what our academic leadership felt described an academic, and not with an eye for changing the designation of any employees or groups of employees. The purpose of the policy is to identify the objective criteria that define an academic at AU today.
The key take-aways appear to be:
AU’s academic leadership (likely the president and the many VPs academic) developed the criteria that would exclude 67% of the members of the unit.
The academic leadership does not believe the work of professionals, academic coordinators, deans, and associate deans is academic in nature.
The criteria were allegedly not developed with “an eye for changing the designation of any employee or group of employees.”
This last statement is hard to reconcile with the obvious effect of the proposed criteria: de-designating two-thirds of AUFA members. If the academic leadership simply goofed in creating the criteria, then the good-faith response would be to admit that, withdraw the proposed policy, and start again.
Instead, AU is moving ahead with a seemingly abbreviated consultation process based on a fundamentally flawed definition of who is an academic. A reasonable conclusion to draw from AU’s behaviour is that (contrary to what AU says), the proposed policy is, in fact, intended to de-designate 67% of the bargaining unit in the run up to collective bargaining.
New Member Actions
Given AU’s apparent commitment to moving forward with the de-designation of 67% of the bargaining unit, we’re asking members to join us in two actions this week to help resist AU’s union-busting:
Temporary Profile Picture:
An AUFA member has designed a temporary “We choose AUFA” profile picture that you can use in your Office 365 profile. This picture will then appear in your email.
To replace your profile picture on PC:
Save the image wechooseAUFA.png to your desktop by clicking the below button, right clicking on the image, and then ‘Save Image As’.
In your browser, log into the web interface of Office 365: https://portal.office.com/account/
Click on “Personal Info”
Click on “Change Photo”
Click on browse and select the png and click “save”.
Buttons
Starting Friday at noon, “We choose AUFA” buttons will be available to AUFA members. We encourage you to wear these buttons while at work to demonstrate your commitment to maintaining AUFA’s existing membership.
The following AUFA members will have buttons available at their desks:
AU Athabasca: Bill Geng (Library), Carole Ganske (IT), Gail Leicht (Research Services)
AU Edmonton: Degan Richards (12th floor)
AU Trail: Miran Nevesinjac and Amanda Bachelot (IT)
We are looking for an AUFA member in Calgary to distribute buttons.
Teleworking members can pick up buttons from any AU location. We’ve decided not to mail buttons to each teleworking member due to cost. Instead, we ask teleworkers change their profile picture.
If you are attending a physical gathering of AUFA teleworkers and would like to receive a package of buttons to distribute at that meeting, please contact engagement@aufa.ca to make arrangements.
Posters
Attached is a new poster for you to print and post in your office. We would be interested in photos of your poster in the office.
Update on Last Week’s Actions
Last week, we asked members to take three actions to help us resist AU’s union-busting:
Academic letter: Assistant, associate and full professors are asked to add their names to an open letter to the Provost requesting that AU abandon its proposed changes. We presently have signatures from half of AU professors.
Testimonials: Professionals, academic 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 continue to raise their concerns with AU’s proposed de-designations with their supervisors and during meetings. This includes asking your supervisors to query the rationale for AU’s proposal of executive members.
If you haven’t had a chance to sign the letter, write a testimonial, or discuss this issue with your supervisor, please do so this week.
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.
Bob Barnetson, Member
AUFA Membership Engagement Committee