Why not become a unionized bargaining unit within a (non-unionized) FAUW?
The proposal for lecturers to form a unionized bargaining unit within FAUW was first proposed by the current FAUW President in a surprise email on June 9th – largely in response to ongoing grassroots efforts by lecturers to form our own union. While there might be some potential benefits to this concept if it could be realized, a lot would depend on the specifics of the proposal (which have not been released) and the speed with which it could be executed – including winning agreement from the professorial ranks within FAUW. Unfortunately, the way this proposal was developed and communicated by the FAUW President raises questions about what type of union he is proposing. Unions are democratic organizations directed by the members themselves. The FAUW President’s announcement of a parallel union certification drive came without any consultation with the Lecturers Committee or the membership at large.
This top-down relationship between FAUW and lecturers is unfortunately not new.
For years, Lecturers have struggled to have our voices heard within FAUW. In summer 2022, Lecturers had to petition a special GM – an extremely rare occurrence – just to pass a motion so that the Chair of the Lecturers Committee could have a seat at the negotiation table for Policy 76. Unfortunately, at the time this motion was ignored. Luckily, it later became obvious that lecturer representation on the negotiation team was needed. But it is still non-lecturers who are calling the shots when it comes to decisions about negotiations. Will this change if lecturers are simply a bargaining unit under FAUW’s leadership? Would the FAUW President or Executive still act as our Chief Negotiator or be required to sign-off on any tentative agreement negotiated by a lecturer negotiation team? There have been healthy signals that FAUW desires to change its governance to address some of these long-standing concerns. Certainly, adding a bargaining unit to FAUW would require significant changes to FAUW’s internal governance. Perhaps tellingly, the formal “governance review” launched in November 2021 by FAUW has still not gotten off the ground. So it remains to be seen how FAUW could resource a successful certification drive – especially if the proposal has not attracted lecturer volunteers and does not yet have endorsement from FAUW’s broader membership.
Another challenge for FAUW representing a union would be in renegotiating new governance arrangements with the university’s administration – causing more delays and potential roadblocks. There are legal requirements that must be met before the Ontario Relations Board will allow an association to represent workers as a collective bargaining agent (e.g., the employer cannot directly pay the salary of staff or executive members as is current practice between the University of Waterloo and FAUW).
There are many ways that FAUW can support lecturers becoming certified as a union. If FAUW would like to support unionization, the best course of action is to first listen to and be directed by lecturers ourselves.
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