After consulting with the bargaining team, AUFA’s executive has applied to the Alberta Labour Relations Board to hold a strike vote. The online vote is scheduled to take place between 9 am and 9 pm on Tuesday, March 29.
This announcement to the membership was slightly delayed because AUFA’s bargaining team agreed to suspend strike communication on March 18 in order to gain the employer’s agreement for further mediation today.
The Executive will be holding membership townhall meeting to provide a bargaining update and discuss the strike vote.
How we got here
In February, AUFA applied for formal mediation after 11 months of unproductive bargaining. Formal mediation began and ended on March 8. This started a 14-day cooling-off period before a strike vote could be held.
The bargaining team has continued bargaining (with a different mediator) on March 11, 18, and 22. The parties agreed to not disclose the substance of their discussions during mediation. No agreement has yet been reached. AUFA’s team remains ready to bargain to achieve a fair deal.
The employer’s past behaviour suggests that AU makes significant moves only when AUFA applies significant pressure. For example, AU only presented a full offer in January (after 10 months of bargaining) when AU was faced with a Labour Board hearing over a complaint that AU was bargaining in bad faith. AU only moved to propose a pattern cost-of-living offer after AUFA filed for formal mediation on in February.
AUFA members’ 85% rejection of AU’s March 8 offer has not yielded a subsequent offer from AU that AUFA’s bargaining team thinks is worth presenting to the membership. The AUFA Executive is of the opinion that a successful strike vote may provide the pressure needed to get a fair deal from AU.
How a strike vote works
A strike vote is an online vote (just like any other AUFA vote) that is supervised by the Labour Board. It asks members whether they would authorize a strike (yes or no). Once the vote has been completed and certified by the Labour Board (and assuming a majority of voters authorize a strike), AUFA’s executive is then able, any time in the next 120 days, to give AU 72 hours of notice of a strike beginning.
A successful strike vote does not necessarily mean strike notice is immediately served (although it can be). Typically, a successful strike vote results in further bargaining as the employer confronts the possibility of an actual strike.
To maximize the employer’s incentive to bargain a deal, unions seek the strongest possible ‘yes’ vote. This shows the employer there will be real consequences if they employer refuses to negotiate a fair deal.
What you can do to show support the bargaining team
The biggest thing you can do is to vote ‘yes’ to authorize a strike. This sends a clear message to the employer that their refusal to sign a fair deal will have consequences. This gives the bargaining team leverage to negotiate a deal before a strike.
Things you can do today include changing your Office 365 profile image to the We Are AU + We Are AUFA image below. This visually demonstrates your support for the bargaining team. Right click on the image below and save it to your computer. Then follow these instructions to substitute the image in place of your regular profile picture.
Instructions for changing your image in Microsoft Teams can be found here.
You can also save the MS Teams backgrounds below to your hard drive and follow these instructions to make them available as a virtual background option in Teams. Your new MS Teams background will appear backwards (i.e., mirror image) when you activate it. Don’t worry, other people will not see this ‘mirror’ view.
I hope to see you all at the townhall later this week. Please keep your eyes peeled for more information about AUFA strike plans over the next few days.
In solidarity,
Dave Powell
AUFA President