ATHABASCA — It turned out to be a case of serendipity when Rhiannon Rutherford started working at Athabasca University (AU) six years ago.
Initially she started in the Centre for Distance Education which spurred her into taking some AU graduate courses before transitioning to the Faculty to Business doing course production, and now she heads up AUFA, the Athabasca University Faculty Association, taking over from David Powell.
“I've always really had a passion for education, but really didn't really see it as part of a clear career path but when I got into it, it was a good fit,” Rutherford said in a recent interview. “I wear different hats, but I work in course production and now my current title is learning designer, which sounds pretty fancy.”
It was about five years ago when she got involved with AUFA during important legislative changes for the union.
“Prior to that AUFA was basically not under labour code, which meant we had collective bargaining, but we were not under strike or lockout legislation,” said Rutherford.
It’s difficult to draw a hard line with an employer when you have no recourse like being able to strike to prove your point.
“If we didn't have that, then we would be extremely vulnerable to just being forced to accept whatever kinds of rollbacks and changes to our agreement that the employer might be seeking,” she said.
Long before that could happen though, Rutherford says she has a vision for the direction of the union.
“My primary activity in the union before taking on the presidency was really getting this engagement committee up and running and I think it's been a labour of love of many people,” said Rutherford.
She compares a union to a dart board; there’s the majority of the people on the outer ring who pay their dues and carry on, there’s a smaller ring of people who pay more attention to what is happening with the union and bargaining, then there’s the bullseye, the core group of people who volunteer for everything and take on leadership roles.
“Our current executive right now, we're very interested in building up structures and a culture of engagement that really empowers people to take ownership of the union themselves,” she said.
Getting feedback from members not only guides the executive in decision-making but builds connections as well, Rutherford said.
“What I'm really hoping for from this term on the AUFA executive is really in contrast to, in particular, the university leadership kind of style, which is from the top down and extremely isolated decision-making,” she said. "I am very much interested in doing the exact opposite and I'm really hoping to continue what I think has been a shift for a really grassroots kind of bottom-up sort of unionism.”
The over 400 AUFA members are comprised of professors, IT (information technologies), course production, librarians, marketing and public relations, finance, and more.
“Basically, in the university, there's almost always at least a few AUFA members to turn the wheels,” said Rutherford. “Anytime we get our members together, there's just such a good productive energy that we wish would be unleashed in a much more productive way by the university. It’s sort of like feeling constrained and held back from doing some really, really good work in service of our students.”
As for the current discussion between the Alberta government, specifically Advanced Education and AU about walking back the near virtual model, Rutherford holds the line the union has taken for several years, she said.
“Our position on the Athabasca location issue has been consistent; we want hiring to the area, a portion of new hires should be located in the Athabasca region (and) that no existing members should be forced to relocate,” she said. “That's been AU’s position for many years.”
