By Lethbridge Herald, February 19, 2022.
Dr. Christopher J. Nicol
Professor of Economics
2017 was a long time ago, and research universities in Alberta were unique workplaces. Their operations were governed by the (then-current) Post-Secondary Learning Act. Disputes concerning terms and conditions of work were settled via binding arbitration. By mutual agreement between the boards of governors of universities and faculty associations, strike and lock-out options were not made available in this system. Faculty members were selected for senior positions in universities through processes that involved faculty members.
2017 saw the NDP government introduce Bill 7, An Act To Enhance Post-Secondary Education Collective Arbitration.
Bill 7 was proclamated, which amended the Post-Secondary Learning Act as well as the Alberta Labour Relations Code to create this enhanced collective bargaining environment. Overnight, faculty organizations became unions and strike/lockout was the way that collective bargaining impasses were to be resolved. Universities became a standard workplace and were governed by the same rules as other workplaces.
Mutually agreed terms and conditions of work make a lot of sense in a university environment since the running of such institutions relies on the expertise of the professionally-trained and educated employees who essentially run the operation in a collegial governance framework. Strike/lockout arrangements are not appropriate for such environments. These are old tools (blunt devices) that were developed in the nineteenth-century industrial and manufacturing environment, to protect workers against the greedy capitalist. 2019 brought more confusion to the water when the UCP government passed The Public Sector Employers Act.
The Act allows the Minister to issue directives that employers must follow before, during, and after engaging collective bargaining or related processes. These directives can include directives on the term of a Collective Agreement and its fiscal limitations.
Further, minister directives must be kept confidential. The opaque labour relations environment in which Alberta universities operate is reminiscent of 19th-century factories. This has led to the current mess in post-secondary collective bargaining in Alberta. This is not good news for students, faculty members, administrators of universities, boards of governors, or societies these universities serve.
The main reasons for the changes in the labour relations environment in Alberta post-secondary education are political.
NDP governments, which are very similar to the Labour Party of the United Kingdom, are built upon foundational relationships with trade unites. Therefore, the NDP governments feel more secure if there is a greater proportion of unionized workers.
The ability to issue collective bargaining directives is desirable by the likes of fiscally-conservative governments, such as the UCP, since this gives such governments oversight and control over the collective bargaining process, not leaving to the chance decision of an arbitrator the pattern of collective bargaining settlements.
The current strike by University of Lethbridge academic staff and subsequent lockout by its Board of Governors result from the enhanced collective bargaining climate created by an NDP government. These conditions were further enhanced by the control through directives of UCP.
This situation is now threatening to turn several employees at the university against each others, as shown by the deluge in claim and counter-claim by the parties to negotiations.
Collective bargaining at Alberta universities was once a collaborative effort. There was no us or them. What one party won, the other had to lose. It was possible to achieve mutual gains. This toxic environment was possible. It is likely to continue until the mutually assured destruction or arbitrated settlement of all disagreements is achieved.
Christopher J. Nicol, a former chief negociator with the University of Regina Faculty Association as well as a former chief negotiater with the governors of University of Lethbridge.
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