Algonquin’s faculty union has accused senior college administration officials of interfering in local union elections in 2013.
The allegations come just weeks ahead of this year’s faculty vote.
A memo circulated by union President Pat Kennedy on Sept. 24 describes “an elaborate and deceitful scheme” to undermine union leadership.
“This information came to light just before the vacation period,” said union Vice President Jack Wilson in an interview. “People were running on a slate that was calling for more collaboration with the college, at the expense of protecting our members.”
According to the memo, there were “unprecedented efforts by management to select union representatives.”
Text messages purportedly sent by college Vice President Doug Wotherspoon to potential candidates were published in the memo, although the recipients of these messages were not named.
“If you want to talk generally about how to run an election campaign let me know,” one text message read.
He is also accused of using an off-campus e-mail address to contact faculty to run in the union elections on a pro-management platform.
“We conclude from what we’ve read that this was operating at definitely a high level and possibly other levels of management as well,” said Kennedy in an interview. “It’s a little bit unbelievable that this kind of influence is asserted by management. If they’re busy trying to do that, are they doing their own job?”
Wotherspoon, however, denies the accusations.
“The union memo does not tell the full story,” he added. “(It) contains inaccuracies and re-organizes my words in such a way as to suggest a course of events that is simply not factual. I did not interfere in the election.”
Kent MacDonald, president of the college in 2013 before he left for Saint Francis Xavier University, did not respond to a request for comment.
Wotherspoon maintains the new administration led by President Cheryl Jensen will help foster better relations with the union.
“A new era of college-union relations is underway and that is my focus, not matters that happened two year ago,” he said.
Kennedy is also unconcerned about interference in 2015, since Jensen assured him “that’s not the way she operates.”
Nevertheless the union still believes the situation raises serious concerns that must be addressed.
“People have to have confidence that the election will be free of intimidation and interference,” said Wilson. “You don’t go out of your way to circumvent the collective agreement. We’d have a better working environment if managers just followed the rules.”
A formal grievance has been filed and the situation is scheduled to go to arbitration sometime in 2016.
“At some point they’ll all get an opportunity to testify,” said Kennedy.