Possible employer responses to a strike
AUFA’s decision to seek formal mediation has moved AUFA and AU closer to a potential work stoppage. This blog examines how AU is likely to respond, including its communication strategies, work stoppage preparations, and efforts to promote scabbing.
Employer communication strategies
Employers typically seek to undercut union support in the run-up to a work stoppage through aggressive anti-union and anti-strike messaging. This messaging can occur during one-on-one and small-group conversations as well as through all-staff communications. Here are some things your boss might say and how you might respond.
Nobody wants a strike
Untrue. Strikes and lockouts occur when employers and workers can't come to a mutually acceptable deal. AU’s unwillingness to table a full offer for nine months and then its unwillingness to negotiate a fair and reasonable deal strongly suggests AU is consciously and deliberately trying to force a strike. AU through its actions and inactions is saying quite clearly that it wants a strike more than it wants to give AUFA members a fair deal.
A strike will hurt students
True. If AU forces AUFA to strike, students will experience disruptions both to their studies and to the administrative functions AU provides and upon which they rely. However, any responsibility for disruptions to students’ post-secondary experience must fall wholly on AU’s behaviour. To be clear, a strike is entirely avoidable if AU agrees to a fair deal. A strike is entirely a function of AU’s choices at the bargaining table.
Everybody loses during a strike
Partially true. A strike entails costs to both AUFA members (foregone salary) and AU (work disruption, negative publicity, reputational harm). Not standing up for our workplace rights, however, also entails costs, such as the consequences of accepting continued wage freezes in the face of steadily rising costs of living as well as major language rollbacks eroding our working conditions. The costs of not striking are borne solely by AUFA members.
But we’re like a family
Untrue. Your employer is not your family. AU hires you because they need work completed. AU is happy to watch your wages stagnate and to crank up your workload. Less than two years ago, AU tried to force two-thirds of AUFA members out of the union. And AU laid AUFA members off when poor, short-sighted Board decisions bankrupted AU in 2013. Does that sound like a family?
We can’t afford to pay you more
Untrue. AU has had operating surpluses every year in recent memory. AU is encouraging last-minute spending this year to hide the fact that AU again has a surplus. AU can certainly afford to pay higher salaries. AU’s bargaining position isn’t about what AU can afford to pay. It is about AU wanting to freeze your pay and give you nothing in return. Further, AU’s proposal to eliminate important AUFA member rights (e.g., professional freedom, professional appeals, equity obligations) has no connection whatsoever to AU’s financial situation.
AUFA will force you to strike
Untrue. AUFA is you and your coworkers. AUFA is also a democracy. A strike can only occur if a majority of AUFA members vote in favour of a strike. A strike is also a last resort—something to be considered only after months of negotiations and mediation have proved fruitless. In this way, a strike is something AU is forcing on AUFA members.
The union can’t win a strike
Untrue. Faculty Associations win new contracts by striking all of the time. Recent examples include the University of Manitoba, Concordia University of Edmonton, and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Most recently, Mount Royal University faculty negotiated a last-minute deal only by threatening a strike.
Unions win new collective agreements when the employer realizes that the cost of a work stoppage is greater than the cost of a new contract. AU is highly dependent on tuition revenue (~50%). Even the threat of a strike is likely to cause enrollments to plummet. An actual strike will severely damage AU’s revenues and reputation.
It would be a shame if AUFA was forced to strike to get a fair deal. But sometimes employers need to learn things the hard way.
Employer preparations
A strike by over 400 AUFA members would entail significant operational disruptions for AU. These disruptions would affect instruction as well as most administrative functions. Indeed, the purpose of a strike is to disrupt operations so significantly that the employer is forced to move off of its last bargaining position and negotiate an acceptable agreement.
Understandably, employers try to minimize the impact of any strike. Employer-side preparations typically entail identifying key processes affected by a work stoppage and ways to maintain those processes. This behaviour can include:
re-tasking excluded (i.e., non-union) staff,
asking workers in other unions to take on struck work,
hiring non-union workers (i.e., scabs) to perform work,
identifying AUFA members who may be induced to stay on the job (i.e., scab), and
crafting messaging to shift the blame for a work stoppage from itself to the workers.
The Job Action Committee (JAC) has assessed AU’s prospects for successfully maintaining operations as low. AU is a complicated organization with ongoing work processes that are difficult to suspend or delay. Perhaps more importantly, AUFA members play critical roles in these processes. In terms of typical employer strategies available to AU:
there are relatively few excluded staff members compared to the amount of work that AUFA members do,
AUFA, AUPE and CUPE signed a solidarity pledge encouraging their members to refuse to perform struck work pursuant to s.149(1)(f) of the Labour Relations Code,
there are no easily available sources of scabs to perform AUFA members’ work because the work performed by AUFA members is often too complex to be easily performed by scabs, and
there are relatively few AUFA members who might scab.
Several AUFA members have asked questions about scabbing. Here are answers to the questions AUFA has received so far.
What is scabbing?
Scabbing is when AUFA members continue to work during a strike. We also sometimes use the term to refer to replacement workers hired by the employer during a strike.
Whether they strike or not, all union members will be affected by whatever collective agreement results from a strike, including any gains AUFA makes. Workers who scab still receive the benefit of that agreement. But, by scabbing, they avoid sharing the costs associated with achieving the agreement. In this way, scabs are free riders.
How would scabbing impact a strike?
Employers encourage scabbing to undermine the disruption caused by a strike. If a strike isn’t disruptive, employers can hold out long enough that workers will accept rollbacks in wages and working conditions.
In short, scabbing is assisting the employer to worsen your wages and working conditions. Some scabbing occurs in almost any strike, but minimizing scabbing typically shortens a strike’s duration and improves the outcomes for workers.
Scabbing by members won’t be an option if the employer locks us out, because all members will be barred from working. However, the employer could conceivably attempt a 24-hour lockout and, if AUFA strikes, invite scabbing after this.
Why do people scab?
There are many reasons. Some workers may think rollbacks are warranted and want to assist the employer to reduce their wages and working conditions. Others may seek to curry favour with the boss in the hope of future reward.
More often, however, workers choose to scab out of fear or concern.
One common fear is of reprisals from the employer. It is important to note that our right to strike is protected and the employer cannot lawfully retaliate against workers for participating in a legal strike. That is to say, you cannot be fired or otherwise punished for legally striking.
Concern for the impacts of a strike on students is another reason some workers may choose to scab. While understandable, this fails to recognize the longer-term impacts that deteriorating working conditions would have on students. Other faculty associations have received strong support from students during strikes.
Some workers may seek to avoid conflict so continue to work in the hope that things will blow over. However, those who choose to scab often find themselves isolated from their coworkers who participated in the strike.
Finally, some members may be worried about the loss of income during a strike. AUFA will provide strike pay and benefits coverage to lessen these impacts, and members are encouraged to take steps to prepare for a period of reduced income.
What do I do if the employer approaches me about scabbing?
The simplest answer is to politely say no. You have a right to strike once AUFA members have voted to do so and served notice. The employer is prohibited by law from retaliating against you for striking.
If you would like to discuss a request by the employer that you participate in scabbing during a strike or if you are feeling pressured to scab, please contact Richard Roach, AUFA’s executive director at roachr@aufa.ca for assistance.
One of my coworkers is talking about scabbing. What should I do?
An honest conversation with your co-worker is the best approach. Ask them why they are considering scabbing. Consider explaining how scabbing will negatively affect everyone’s wages and working conditions and potentially damage relationships.
If you’d like some advice about or assistance with such a conversation, please contact Rhiannon Rutherford, Chair of AUFA’s Membership Engagement Committee at rhiannon.rutherford@athabascau.ca.
How would AUFA handle scabbing by AUFA members?
If there is a strike and a member is discovered to be scabbing, JAC’s plan is to approach the members and have a discussion. Hopefully, they can be talked around to honoring the strike.
If not, the Executive has a number of options available to it, including suspension of membership and publicizing the names and photos of anyone who scabs. AUFA can also proceed civilly to recover the strike pay against members who scabbed but also took unearned strike pay.
After the strike is over, AUFA’s dues report will allow AUFA to identify anyone who continued to work during a strike. The Executive will determine how to proceed.
Most commonly, what happens after a strike is that scabs are socially ostracized by their co-workers. Members who endured a strike in order to protect and improve everyone’s terms and conditions of work rarely forget who scabbed.
After a strike, it is not uncommon for scabs to find themselves without friends in the workplace and even subject to subtle retaliation by understandably angry co-workers (e.g., by withholding information, favours, and effort). Often, scabs find the workplace so uncomfortable after a strike that they decide to move on.
Workers who scab in the hope of being rewarded by the boss often find the boss has a short memory and doesn’t keep its promises. Poor treatment of scabs by the boss is not surprising. Employers typically force a strike to grind wages and working conditions. Scabs are simply a tool to achieve that end. Once their usefulness comes to an end, scabs often find themselves discarded by the boss.
Bob Barnetson, Chair
AUFA Job Action Committee
Your turn
The Job Action Committee is interested in your views of AU’s strike preparations. As always, this form does not record your identity (i.e., is entirely anonymous).