The provincial government owes students answers

By Lethbridge Herald on March 12, 2022.

Editor:

These past four weeks have been an unfortunately historic moment for the University of Lethbridge. The hallways of our institution have been absent of students since Feb. 10because of a strike and lockout by the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association and the University of Lethbridge Board of Governors. This job action has put students in an indescribably difficult situation, atop mounting challenges that we’ve already been facing in the form of tuition increases and class disruptions due to COVID-19. 

It is incredibly frustrating as a student to have no formal power or influence to return to the classroom that we are paying to be in. 

However, this article is addressed to those who do have power. We at the University of Lethbridge Students’ Union (ULSU) have been led to suspect that the provincial UCP Government has played a substantial role in these stalled negotiations and subsequent job action. In 2019, the UCP passed the Public Sector Employers Act, which allows the Minister of Finance to issue secret orders to bargaining teams at post-secondary institutions. The Minister doesn’t have to tell anyone what’s in the order, and the employer is not allowed to tell anyone either — even the union they are negotiating with.

Students have been hitting a wall trying to look for an explanation as to why the two parties have been unable to come to an agreement for the past 600 days. As the President of the ULSU, I firmly believe, and demand to find out, if bargaining mandates imposed by the UCP government is the explanation for why we are currently in a strike. 

The U of L has a unique context – we are the smallest of the comprehensive academic research universities, we’ve been adversely and uniquely affected by COVID-19 as Alberta’s destination university, and we’ve been hit hard by cuts to our provincial operating grant. Other Albertan institutions like Mount Royal University and the University of Alberta may have been able to navigate mandates given by the provincial government (though students of those institutions were holding their breath for a potential strike as well), because they have not had to sustain the unique challenges that the U of L has, and they have perhaps more malleable budgets than we. 

Nevertheless, the U of L is now the only Albertan institution currently experiencing a strike. Why? The Board of Governors likely can’t work past, (and can’t disclose) the provincial government’s bargaining mandates.

A case study into how damaging secret bargaining mandates are to universities can be seen in Manitoba. In 2016, a 21-day strike at the University of Manitoba was aggravated by a secret bargaining mandate, which the Manitoba government was later forced to admit was unconstitutional. In Fall 2021, UManitoba experienced an even longer 35-day strike, again aggravated by a secret mandate that could only be addressed by binding arbitration. It seems to students that the Alberta government is determined to learn nothing from Manitoba’s mistakes.

I am wracking my brain as to why I’m still here, out of class, four weeks into a strike. There is no question that both negotiating teams are made up of well-educated, competent, and strong individuals. There is no question that our institution is able to navigate its financial challenges, while maintaining their commitment to people, access, and quality. The only question that I cannot get an answer to, is whether or not, and how far the provincial government has overstepped in the labour negotiations at my university. 

The provincial government owes U of L students answers. Everyday that the strike continues, is another day of frustration, uncertainty, and hardship for students, and transparency is the very least that we’ve come to expect from our provincial government. If the government wants to control the U of L’s bargaining, they need to come forward and be accountable for the effect it has had. Students need to know.

Holly Kletke

President of the University of Lethbridge Students’ Union