ATHABASCA — Athabasca University (AU) and the Athabasca University Faculty Association (AUFA) are once again testing the strength of their relationship after AU sent notice it intends to remove the five faculty Deans from AUFA.
Until Sept. 11, the designation policy was considered clear and straightforward, stating all professionals and academics are in AUFA excluding senior managers and human relations (HR) and after pushback from AUFA and their colleague unions — the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) — AU backed down from enforcing the policy changes, until now.
“The current situation is we're at a stalemate of sorts with the university recognizing the consequences of trying to remove two-thirds of our members are not worth the attempt to do so,” said AUFA president David Powell in an interview Feb. 19. “But if they manage to use this to remove deans from AUFA, this means the policy is valid, the policy can be a reasonable test of who is in AUFA and that means the policy can then be used for other groups, much larger groups.”
Powell explained the policy is triggered when a business case is submitted.
“The procedure starts by somebody submitting a business case, which is basically an argument about why someone should be in or out of AUFA. This was sent by Human Resources, but the business case was on behalf of the Provost (and vice president Academic) Matt Prineas.” Powell said.
Five members does not seem like a lot but the deans are the most senior members in AUFA, and since notice of intent to bargain was made May 4, AU cannot make changes to staffing in what is referred to as a statutory freeze.
“Notably, you cannot legally change the terms and conditions of bargaining unit work within the notice period of bargaining. This is called a statutory freeze and it is illegal to try to change it,” he said. “We assert this is a violation of the statutory freeze because that undermines our ability to negotiate when our membership goes down.”
Kristine Williamson, vice president of University Relations, responded Feb. 21 to a request for comment on behalf of Prineas, saying AU is looking forward to working with stakeholders on the issue.
“Upon review of the criteria in the Designation as Academic Policy, and in accordance with the accompanying Designation as Academic Procedure, the university notified all potential stakeholders a Designation Business Case (DBC) was submitted with respect to the deans,” Williamson said.
“Following review and consideration of the DBC, the executive team requested consultation with the stakeholders commence. No final decisions are made with respect to a designation matter until the consultation process is completed and a decision is made by the Human Resources and Compensation Committee (HRCC) of the Board of Governors. The university looks forward to working with all parties in a timely and respectful manner, while honouring our obligations to consult in good faith.”
Even though AU has not sent AUFA their bargaining proposal, Powell said the removal of the deans should be done during bargaining, which has been put off due to COVID but is scheduled to start in March.
“They sent us an e-mail a while ago saying they intended to implement this policy during the statutory freeze,” said Powell. “But telling somebody you're going to break the law in advance does not permit the breaking of the law."
AU is trying to make the case deans are management and not academics, but AUFA argues deans have no hiring or firing powers and are not akin to a classic private sector manager.
“Hiring is done by committees, firing is done by Human Resources, and deans even delegate out to their supervisory duties to centre chairs,” said Powell. “So, although deans are still powerful, they do not have a huge amount of personal management authority ... they're clearly academics.”
Powell said AUFA will be speaking to the deans about what they want and the union is preparing to a legal argument to be presented to the Alberta Labour Relations Board, but they are not ruling out escalating the fight. He noted AUFA has promises from other faculty associations across Canada, that AU transfer credits will be boycotted if members are removed.
"To me, this reads like a low-risk attempt by them to use this designation policy and then to see if we blink, and we're not going to blink,” said Powell.
