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For the past six months, AUFA has been advocating that AU revise its proposed de-designation policy so as to not carve 67% of AUFA members out of the bargaining unit, including all:
professional staff,
academic coordinators, and
deans and associate deans
So far, there has been little progress in consultation. On Friday, June 12, AU finally acknowledged that its proposed policy would, indeed, see academic coordinators excluded from the bargaining unit. When AUFA asked whether AU would also acknowledge that the proposed policy would also exclude professionals, AU then said it would not answer any more hypothetical questions.
Imagine you were looking to finance a car or a house. But the lender wouldn’t tell you what the monthly payments would be until you sign the contract. And, when you worked out what you thought the payments would be and asked if your calculations were correct, the lender respond with “I won’t answer hypothetical questions.” That’s basically what AU is doing in this consultation.
There has been a lot of speculation over who is behind this strategy. Is this President Fassina’s approach? Or has the AU consultation team (headed by policy author AVP Margaret Kierylo and, increasingly, Labour Relations Consultant Abey Arnaout) gone rogue?
It is hard to say, but if you watch this clip from the June 5 Connect with the President session, you can see Fassina is using the same prevaricating approach at the AU consultation team:
“…[w]e’re not at a finalized policy. We don’t yet know what those criteria are to be able to understand how to apply them. As I noted, until the university has solidified what those criteria are that delineate what an academic is, the university is unable, unwilling and it would be disingenuous to assume or to conclude that an individual or a group of individuals would be impacted until we have those criteria.”
It is, of course, ridiculous for AU to purport to consult on a policy proposal but then refuse to even explore the key implications of the proposal. But, here we are.
The last consultation meeting between AUFA, AUPE, CUPE and AU is scheduled for June 29. On June 12, AU indicated that, once the current round of consultation is over, it will be revising the proposed policy and then consulting on the revisions. There is no indication of what the revisions might entail. One strategy AU might adopt is making a small concession in the hope that AUFA will roll over on the rest.
In the video clip above, Fassina urged all AUFA members who “did not see themselves” in AU’s proposed de-designation policy to contact their union representatives and convey their concerns.
MEC is asking all professionals, academic coordinators, and deans and associate deans to fill out the form below indicating that they wish to remain in the AUFA bargaining unit. AUFA will present this information to Fassina in the hope that he will see the degree of opposition to his union-busting proposal among directly affected AUFA members.
While AUFA has a legal strategy developed to fight any effort to de-designate members, it is better if we convince the university to maintain the status quo under their policy.
Bob Barnetson, Member
Membership Engagement Committee