College, union agree to move past election-tampering allegations

Algonquin College will forfeit about $100,000 in fees from its faculty union, and has agreed to provide all managers with labourrelations training to settle a grievance over allegations of tampering with union elections.

Training must include “a component dealing with union interference” following allegations a senior manager attempted to encourage a management-friendly slate of candidates to run against “the old guard” in the 2013 union elections. The settlement agreement did not say whether the specific allegations made by the union had been established.

In the settlement, the college acknowledged it breached the collective agreement, but a college spokesman said Algonquin is “not holding any individual responsible for the actions of the college at the time.” The arbitrator-facilitated settlement does not identify any individual manager.

The college also declined to identify specifically whose actions were the source of the grievance, but according to OPSEU Local 415, which represents college faculty, the complaint centered on emails and text messages sent by Algonquin vice-president Doug Wotherspoon to a faculty member.

The union, which showed the messages to the Citizen, alleged in a memo to its members that there had been an “elaborate” plan to encourage “management-friendly” candidates to run for office.

“The veracity of the emails was never challenged by the college at either the grievance meeting or at arbitration,” OPSEU 415 vicepresident Jack Wilson said.

However, a letter from Wotherspoon’s legal counsel, received by the Citizen prior to publication of this story, denied the union’s allegations that Wotherspoon attempted to influence the 2013 election or in any way pressured any individual to run in the election and called them defamatory.

“These statements are simply untrue, unsupported by facts and evidence, and damage our client’s reputation,” said the letter from Michel Bastarache at Power Law.

The union shared text and email exchanges with the Citizen on the condition no faculty would be identified.

The texts are from a cellphone number listed as Wotherspoon’s contact number in archived college memos. Calls to that number reached a voicemail in Wotherspoon’s name. The emails are from a Gmail account in Wotherspoon’s name.

The messages forward the names of a number of potential candidates to a professor at the school. At least three of those named in the text exchange ran for election in 2013 — all on the same slate, which pledged a more constructive working relationship with management. None was elected.

One text message from Wotherspoon’s number to the professor on Nov. 6, 2013, during the nomination period, a month before the vote, reads: “If you want to talk generally about how to run an election campaign let me know. I have run a few in my time.”

Wotherspoon has worked on Jim Watson’s campaigns, most recently as chair of the mayor’s successful 2014 re-election bid.

At one point during the same text exchange in early November 2013, the professor sends a message to Wotherspoon’s number with a warning to be careful. “I was asked today ... if management was involved (sic) I said no.”

The response from Wotherspoon’s number is: “Thanks for that. I will only pass on names and stay out of the conversation.”

The following day, Wotherspoon’s number sent a request via text for the professor’s “off-campus email address.”

Later that evening, an email was sent from the Gmail account to the professor listing 25 names of potential candidates. The email begins with “Here is a first draft of possible folks. I will keep going through e Directory to identify others,” and ends with the signature: Doug Wotherspoon, executive director, advancement, Algonquin College.

The union said Wotherspoon’s alleged use of an off-campus email account is “noteworthy,” as the emails would fall outside of the scope of freedom-of-information requests “and cannot be easily disclosed by the College should this be required for arbitration or legal proceedings.”

In another exchange with the same professor, a text from Wotherspoon’s number said the election “will make a massive difference both in the short term and long term ...” and said, “In the interim, anything you think will help you lighten the load, just ask.”

On election day — Dec. 3, 2013 — a text from Wotherspoon’s number refers to the results as “terrible news” and offers to “buy a few rounds” for the losing candidate.

Wotherspoon denied the allegations in a 2015 interview with campus newspaper The Algonquin Times, saying, “The union memo does not tell the full story. … (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.”

The union filed a grievance and, according to the settlement, which was signed Dec. 8, 2016 by director of labour relations Diane McCutcheon, the college acknowledged its interference in union elections as a “breach of the academic collective agreement.”

Algonquin spokesman Scott Anderson declined to comment when asked directly about Wotherspoon’s alleged involvement, and declined to say whether anyone would face a reprimand over the actions.

“We will not be commenting on individuals,” Anderson stated. “There were no individuals mentioned in the (settlement) agreement and it is wrong to associate this agreement with a single person. The agreement outlined in the Minutes of Settlement was made in good faith in line with the college’s principles of openness and transparency to help everyone move on from the past and help the college and faculty union achieve reconciliation. It is important to note that the agreement addresses an issue that is four years old and under a different college president (Kent MacDonald).

“It is disappointing that the union executive has chosen to characterize a positive development in such a negative manner.”

According to the terms of the settlement, the college agrees to remain neutral in all future union elections and will provide “enhanced labour relations training,” including a component on union interference to all management.

The college also agreed to waive union fees from the winter 2016 semester to Dec. 31, 2017, which according to union estimates will cost the college more than $100,000 in amounts owing from OPSEU.

Anderson noted the “great strides” management has made in labour relations under current college president Cheryl Jensen, and referenced recent comments from Warren (Smokey) Thomas, where the OPSEU president praised “a very positive step in restoring a building a new relationship” between the college and its support staff union.

“We look forward to the day when we can have this relationship with the faculty union,” Anderson said.

If you want to talk generally about how to run an election campaign let me know.