Update: bargaining update and member engagement meetings

Bargaining Update

Late last week, AUFA’s bargaining committee sent notice to AU that it would like to commence bargaining within the next month. AUFA served notice to bargaining last spring, but both sides agreed to delay bargaining in the hope that in-person negotiations could take place. The ongoing COVID restrictions and positive reports about video-conferenced negotiations from other faculty associations led the AUFA team to decide to move forward.

The AUFA bargaining team is Jason Foster (chair), Alexa DeGagne, Jen Rempel, Bangaly Kaba, and Richard Roach (AUFA office). Once proposals are exchanged with the employer, AUFA will provide detailed information about its proposal as well as analysis of AU’s opening position.

Member Engagement Meetings

Last week, AUFA’s membership engagement committee a met with 32 AUFA members engaged in course production. This meeting continues a series of smaller membership meetings designed to address topics of interest to each subgroup and allow for more back and forth. Another membership engagement meeting will be held with AUFA members in University Relations next week.

Course Production Reorganization

Most of the meeting focused on the previously announced re-organization of course production. At present, it appears the course production portion of the larger OneAU reorganization is on hold until the implementation of the ILE is completed, though some members of course production teams may be affected by the IT optimization plans that were scheduled to be released this month but look to be possibly delayed.

There was significant skepticism that there exists an underlying problem that the re-organization would solve. Rather, members expressed that they felt the re-organization is mainly a power grab by the executive, who desire the ability to determine the form of courses. It is unclear whether AU will remain committed to the re-organization of course production with President Fassina’s departure.

While the delay in the re-organization was generally viewed favourably, some staff expressed concerns that this delay was being used as a pretext to not fill vacant positions. Unfilled positions create unmanageable workloads as well as delays in course production.

Members also noted that HR and the university executive appear to have a limited grasp of the complexities of course development or the differences that have emerged across faculties, which may hinder ILE implementation plans.

Exam Problems

There was also discussion of the executive’s unwillingness to address problems with existing examination platforms that have been exacerbated by COVID. While the combination of ProctorU and the existing exam platforms present a viable option for some students in some courses, there has been no willingness to look at a broader solution that is both scalable and addresses more complex needs.

Instead, this concern gets waived off with the assertion that final examinations are not the gold-standard in summative assessment. This belief ignores that some courses and programs require invigilated examinations, in part due to external accreditation and professional credentialling requirements. In addition, the emergency move to online exams created high touch processes that have intensified already high workloads of some AUFA members.

Worrying Trends

This most recent meeting highlights worrying trends that seem to be shared by many departments across the university—high workloads, uncertainty about coming changes, and a lack of clear direction from university leadership seems to be making for increasingly untenable situation for many AUFA members. There is a clear desire to receive more appropriate support—including new staff and hiring to vacant positions—for improvements and innovations in the here and now, not the distant and uncertain future.

- Dave Powell, President