AASUA

Dear colleagues, 

As you may recall, as a result of the Board of Governor's negotiating team's tremendously disappointing and arguably unlawful behaviour at informal mediation in late March, the AASUA filed a bad faith bargaining complaint against the Employer in early May at the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB). In response, the Employer filed an application for the next step in bargaining, formal mediation. Given our concern that if the AASUA was compelled into formal mediation, the Employer would continue to demonstrate the same bad faith behaviours we saw at the table in March, the AASUA then filed an application requesting that the ALRB order that formal mediation be delayed until the bad faith complaint was heard and determined by the ALRB. In the meantime, however, the AASUA continued to cooperate with the formal mediation scheduling process as required by Alberta's Labour Relations Code. 

While the AASUA completely rejects the Employer's arguments in relation to our request to delay bargaining, we have revisited the timeline that would likely result if our application to do so was granted by the ALRB.  Given the detailed nature of our bad faith complaint, as well as our challenge to the Government of Alberta's extensive and exclusive control over our table's monetary negotiations and their unilateral imposition of a 4-year term for the next Collective Agreement undermining your right to free and fair collective bargaining as part of the guaranteed freedom of association rights within the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we know that the hearing of the evidence and the complex arguments within the complaint will most likely take many months to complete, and the hearing has not even been scheduled at this time. 

A number of unions have since also applied to the ALRB for intervenor status (The University of Calgary Faculty Association, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations and the Alberta Colleges and Institutes Faculties Association) and more unions have expressed interest in this important question and participating in the hearing. While we welcome the intervenors, their presence will likely add at least some length to the hearing as well. Further, the ALRB normally requires an additional number of months to write and issue a thoughtful decision after such a hearing. 

After serious consideration, the AASUA came to the conclusion that continuing to pursue the interim request to delay bargaining until after the ALRB issues its decision on the merits of our bad faith complaint, likely a year if not two from now, would not necessarily be in the best interests of our membership. As a result, today we withdrew the application for an order to delay bargaining from the ALRB. To be clear, we did not withdraw the underlying bad faith complaint and that matter will continue before the ALRB. If the Employer engages in repeat behaviour similar to that which the AASUA's team witnessed during informal mediation in March, the AASUA will add that as further evidence to our current complaint at the ALRB. Rest assured, we will be vigilant in watching for such unlawful tactics from the Employer in the future. 

We can advise you that formal mediation has now been scheduled for September 4, 5, October 21, and 22. It is important to understand that formal mediation is not binding arbitration. If no settlement is reached between the parties or no recommendations are made by the mediator by the end of the mediation period, then after a further 14 day cooling off period, a strike vote can legally be held. 

It is imperative that the AASUA continues its preparations for strike action in the event formal mediation does not result in a proposed agreement that the AASUA can bring to the membership for its consideration.

We need a way to contact you

The Employer has stated that they will lock you out of your ualberta.ca email account should job action occur. Therefore, it is imperative that you provide us with your alternative contact information by registering here. 

If your contract ended April 30, or if your Spring contract is about to end, please register here with us so that you can continue to receive AASUA communications. We know many AASUA members who work on contract will be back with us in September; however, if you do not register to receive communications over the summer, we will not be able to communicate with you until you are back on contract. 

Stay Informed

We ask you to pay attention to our Ongoing Negotiations webpage and to our Bargaining Bulletins so you will stay informed as to the status of negotiations.  

We will continue to keep members informed as the situation develops.