Augustana’s faculty association has announced that a majority of faculty members at Augustana University College have signed a petition to certify.

According to Gerhard Lotz, president of the Augustana University College Faculty Association, the move was prompted by the board of regents’ failure to ratify a negotiated agreement last May.

“Rumours the collective agreement might be abrogated also fueled faculty interest in certification,” he said.

Faculty packed a meeting room in Camrose Jan. 22 to hear CAUT chief negotiations officer Neil Tudiver explain the certification process and the benefits of a unionized workplace.

Lotz said virtually everyone there signed a petition in favour of representation by AUCFA and the association now has a comfortable majority of 75 per cent of the proposed bargaining unit signed up.

AUCFA was established in 1991, with the college agreeing to voluntarily recognize the association as the sole bargaining agent for Augustana’s full-time teaching faculty.

Lotz said AUCFA would prefer a relationship based on a sounder legal basis than the voluntary agreement could provide. “Certification will enable the association to negotiate broader and more secure agreements than in the past.”

The new unit will include sessional and other contract faculty.

“The tremendous response of Augustana faculty to this move suggests it is one whose time has come,” Lotz said.