PART-TIME ACADEMIC LABOUR CONFERENCE:
COCAL VIII, SAN DIEGO, AUGUST 2008
This summer I attended the 8th conference organized by COCAL (Coalition of Contingent Academic Labour) in San Diego. This event brought voices together from Canada, the United States and Mexico to speak to the issues of part-time academic labour. I was part of a roundtable discussion on media and public relations during job action and was also able to attend many of the other breakout sessions on various topics.
What is COCAL? "The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor is a floating conference and a network of North American activists working to improve higher education through the collective achievement of job security, livable wages, academic freedom, and time and resources for academic research and professional development for contingent academic laborers" (taken from http://www.cupfa.org/cocal.html, October 6, 2008). The fact that it is not a for profit group has allowed it to represent many voices and interests in the contingent academic labour market. It has not been co-opted by many of the stakeholders in higher education and so long as it stays this way I feel that Canadian universities should continue to support its efforts.
The sessions I attended included How to Create a COCAL Affiliate, the Impact of Contingent Academic Labour on Educational Quality, and the situation in various locales including Quebec (FNEEQ), Canada (CAUT) and Mexico. There was also a Canadian regional meeting that looked at issues specific to us and proposed a Canadian location to host the COCAL IX conference in 2010.
I enjoyed aspects of all the sessions I attended and would be glad to share my notes with anyone interested. Contingent (part-time) academic labour is and will continue to be an important issue in all of our future negotiations at Acadia University. The great majority of American and some Canadian universities know that part-time contracts are a great way to have courses taught while not having to maintain equitable rights among the employees teaching those courses. The basic idea of equal pay for equal work is not part of part-time employment at Acadia and I am committed to helping change that. Let us remember that a part-time employee at Acadia would have to teach 10 courses (as I have in the past) to make the same salary as a step 1 lecturer according to the 12th Collective Agreement (and this is vast improvement over the 11th CA). It is a big issue that needs to be addressed. I would like to share a couple of overriding feelings I got from the conference.
The part-time situation in
Canada varies greatly but compared to what is happening in the United States
and Mexico we seem to be way ahead. A far higher percentage of universities in
Canada are unionized and thus our labour force is better represented. In some
U.S. states it is still illegal for part-time faculty to even organize into unions!
This creates a massive discrepancy when it comes to discussing rights and
issues at a conference like this. In Mexico a recent work stoppage by faculty
was to fight for classroom availability of chalk and paper. The need to see
these issues as truly global is very important. What we gain in rights here can
be the model for gaining rights at institutions around the world. When I spoke
of how Acadia University faculty had embraced part-time issues as important to
the whole bargaining unit last year there were American colleagues who were
desperate to know how we got our full-time and part-time units to come together
and fight for common goals.
Quebec has some great mechanisms in place as unions meet together throughout the year to discuss common problems across the post-secondary (and CEGEP) system. By doing this they are able to strategically negotiate contracts based on what they each are achieving, one after the other. This model would be beneficial to our labour force in Maritime Canada. If the part-time representatives of all universities in PEI, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia could get together every year I believe that just the simple act of discussing common goals and needs would make for better issue management when it comes time for contract negotiations. We could all point to what was being done at each other’s institutions to improve part-time labour rights. Money in lieu of benefits, stipends to serve on committees, job security, promotion and pro-rata pay are still the major issues across North America. We have not yet achieved a model that is equitable for part-time faculty but COCAL is a great place to make sure these issues are discussed and fought for across the continent. If you have any questions please contact me and I would be happy to share more details of the conference with you. Mark.adam@acadiau.ca.
Mark Adam