Bargaining on February 12 was unproductive. But, on February 13, AU presented the Athabasca University Faculty Association (AUFA) with a two-year offer containing a wage freeze but dropping all of its demands for language rollbacks. AUFA countered with a four-year pattern offer of two zeros, two years of a wage re-opener, and some language improvements.
While AU has moved towards (but not yet to) a pattern deal, no agreement has yet been reached and things could still fall apart. If this latest round of bargaining fails, AUFA retains the option of putting its most recent offer directly to the employer via a proposal vote. And AU President Neil Fassina’s re-appointment review gets under way in March and represents a significant pressure point.
AU’s February 13 proposal is a radical change in AU’s hitherto unreasonable stance. It suggests the AU decided the cost of pushing major language rollbacks is too high. It isn’t clear of AU’s new tact was directed by the BoG, its Human Resource Committee, or President Fassina.
Indeed, it isn’t clear who is actually in charge of AU’s bargaining strategy. The official line seems to be that the Human Resource Committee gives the AU bargaining team a mandate and then stands back and waits for the outcome while the BoG itself is kept in the dark.
But the behaviour of AU’s bargaining team suggests they are getting interim marching orders from someone. This doesn't really accord with the “wind’em up and let’em go” narrative. I’d bet Fassina is making the decisions. I suppose, if things go badly and someone needs to take the fall (which is the AU way), who gets ceremonially garroted by the site of the old hitching post might be instructive.
One of the reasons the cost of rollbacks is so high for AU is because it threw away its best lever (AUFA members’ reluctance to strike) by being overly aggressive and alienating its workers. This was a bad strategy for two reasons.
First, AU could likely have done better at the table if it had been less aggressive. It would have been difficult for AUFA to resist mild language rollbacks if the rest of AU’s offer had been a pattern offer. With a pissed off membership, rollbacks are now out of reach for AU. Absent that, AU's only option was to try and bluff (which didn't work, because workers aren't stupid).
Second, AU’s aggressive behaviour has shattered the veneer of collegiality at AU, starkly demonstrated that university faculty are workers and AU is an employer (and a very nasty one at that). The stock of the union has risen, more members identify as pro union, and the small cadre of management apologists in the AUFA membership have gone silent.
AU’s decision to fold at the bargaining table also legitimizes the hard-line against concessions taken by the AUFA’s executive, bargaining team, and work stoppage committee and the tactics used to resist. Basically, AU just taught its faculty that resistance is necessary and effective. That lesson will pay dividends for AUFA for years to come.
Given this, if I was a Board member, I’d be looking to sack whomever gave the BoG such terrible bargaining advice. And I’d be reluctant to ever trust the judgment of whoever took the advice and acted upon it. And that's an ace you can keep.
-- Bob Barnetson
Good work you guys. I'm glad someone saw sense.
ReplyDeleteAs a long-time student of AU (and unionized employee at another AB post-secondary in the midst of bargaining a long-expired agreement), I have read your blogs avidly and wondered HOW an employer could be SO uncompromising, so visibly against its faculty, when logic dictates resistance could be the only outcome. "Basically, AU just taught its faculty that resistance is necessary and effective." There's nothing left if there's no compromise, is there? I can't wait to see what the outcome is. Workers DO have power (this is a tremendous lesson that every member of the working class needs to learn).
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