Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) executive met with their Athabasca University (AU) members last Thursday to announce a fundraiser and address concerns about those members being forced to take unpaid furlough days.
President of AUPE Guy Smith said the union wants to stand behind its members.
“We spent some time with our members who are support staff at Athabasca University,” he said. “They really are the backbone of the university. They provide all the student support services and faculty (support services).”
Athabasca University has said as a result of government cuts to post-secondary education, layoffs are needed to balance the budget.
“They are faced with a situation right now where the university is forcing them to take 10 unpaid days off over the next six months,” Smith said. “We have filed a number of legal challenges and policy grievances. We encouraged them to file individual grievances.”
AUPE has also filed a complaint with the Alberta Labour Relations Board.
“We believe the employer has used the language of the collective agreement improperly, but we have also filed with the Alberta Labour Relations Board because we are in negotiations with Athabasca University right now, and these measures that they have taken, we believe, constitute bargaining in bad faith,” he explained. “We hope the board rules on that, and what we really want is a reversal of the forced days off.”
Smith knows it could take a significant amount of time before the board rules.
The union heads used the meeting to tell the members they are standing up for them.
“It will be a big financial hit to a lot of them as there are a lot of single parents who work there, and there are a lot of part-time workers as well,” Smith said. “It is going to hurt them as individuals, it is going to hurt their families, and it is going to hurt the community of Athabasca.”
The union is hosting a fundraising dinner at the Athabasca Agriplex Oct. 15, the first of the forced unpaid days off.
“We just want to let them know we are there to support them, and we will do whatever we can to continue that support,” Smith said. “This is to bring them all together, but also to try and raise some money for the families that will be experiencing financial difficulty as a result of these layoffs. It is about pulling everyone together.”
Smith said when employees left the meeting last Thursday, they were not pleased.
“There is a lot of anger and frustration, and they feel disrespected by their employer, and they are already stretching to the limit in terms of the services they are expected to provide, but they are very dedicated to that work,” he said. “There is a lot of anger at the university and, by extension, anger towards the government.
“What we talked about is how they can direct that anger, and where it needs to go.”
Smith said local MLA and Minister of Education Jeff Johnson needs to be informed of the angry union members.
“I think we need to let him know how they are going to be impacted as individuals, and how the university and the community is going to be impacted,” Smith said.
Smith explained that living in Alberta, this shouldn’t be the case.
“Alberta has a super hot economy, population growth is increasing all the time, and the demand for post-secondary education is increasing,” he explained. “Yet, the government has taken it upon itself to gut post-secondary education. We think it is completely counterproductive when you are looking at continuing to grow the economy and continuing to build an educated workforce.”
Athabasca University spokesperson John O’Brien said he could not comment on union matters.
