Athabasca hides cost of bargaining

Athabasca University is refusing to divulge how much money it was spent driving bargaining with the Athabasca University Faculty Association (AUFA) to impasse.

The university’s unwillingness to quantify the costs of its behaviours suggests that those costs are high. An estimate would be along these lines:

Activity	Cost/Day	Days	Cost ($)
Bargaining	$6800	20	136,000
Preparation, ESA, Misc Litigation	$6800	20	136,000
Communications Consultant	n/a	n/s	10,000
Total			282,000

These are intentionally conservative estimates and include lawyer costs and staff time. I’d be happy to publish the actual number if AU wants to make it available.

That AU has spent nearly $300,000 to reach impasse is pretty galling, given that the provincial settlement pattern is obvious and this could have been wrapped up in two days of bargaining last summer.

$282k is a lot of money and could have been used to: 

1. Waived tuition and fees on a course for more >400 undergraduate students,
2. Hired three additional professors or professional staff,
3. Provided decent and free meals for graduates at convocation, or
4. Provided a $700 signing bonus to all AUFA members.

 Attempting to frame AU’s profligate spending on bargaining as being done with the “utmost respect” for the bargaining unit and for students is transparently false.

I look forward to seeing the results from the impending climate/engagement survey that the university is planning on doing. Twenty bucks says they are worse than last time, when only 25% of staff had trust in senior executives.

-- Bob Barnetson