On March 26 and 27, 1998 CIEA President Ed Lavalle was invited to represent CIEA and CAUT at the first National Conference of Higher Education Unions in Mexico City. This important gathering was the first national meeting of the university unions since the Mexican government legislated against a single national union for Mexican university workers in the early 1980s. The theme of the conference was Defence of Public, Post-Secondary and Higher Education.
The CIEA President brought greetings from our organization and CAUT and described to the conference how higher education worked in Canada. He talked about the challenges of globalization and privatization in higher education -- challenges common to academic workers throughout North America.
Lavalle discussed how academic research was falling under commercial influence and how governments were using "labour market training plans" to develop plans for post-secondary development. These plans were often narrowly focused with little room for education in arts and humanities. He pointed out that some institutions were becoming propagators of business ideology in return for funding of new programs and buildings.
He concluded that this agenda was not inevitable. Lavalle pointed to British Columbia as an example where public, post-secondary education was being protected and expanded even though the pressures of globalization in Canada are still apparent as he outlines in the excerpt from his comment below.
"Globalization -- with its emphasis on free trade and creating a global market characterized by the "commoditization" of everything -- has changed the institutional, learning and research environment considerably. And the process is not over.
"Privatization, the most overt consequence, is the growth of private training institutions as demand exceeded supply. Most of this growth has been in training for business and industry, in language instruction for new immigrants in either English or French; and in adult basic education (literacy and numeracy).
"However, the universities and colleges have expanded their own activity as business enterprises by offering courses to generate revenue either to recover costs or make a profit. Large colleges and institutes in my home province of British Columbia now make four to six per cent of their revenues from entrepreneurial activities. In British Columbia, a new public university, Royal Roads, was launched with the directive to become totally self-sufficient in five years. Currently, I am involved in negotiations to bring government and public utility training into my organization's jurisdiction and away from the private training sector. Institutions have also increased their entrepreneurship in the international field. Where previously foreign ventures may have been in the form of development aid, the institutions' agenda is now to commoditize education, export it, and sell it for profit.
"How can we make a difference? By understanding the context in which we work and the global forces which try to shape that environment.
"By uniting among ourselves as educators and forming organizations capable and effective in representing our interests. Strong unions are at the forefront of this agenda.
"By forming coalitions with others: first with those who immediately are affected by what affects us, the students and their organizations; and then with other organizations of workers and those in the struggle for human and social rights.
"By uniting across borders -- as we are doing today."
Ed Lavalle's visit to Mexico was the second contact CIEA has had with Mexican university unions in recent months. In October, the General Secretary of the Academic Workers Union at the University of Chapingo visited Vancouver as part of a conference opposing APEC.
Source: CIEA Profile, May 1998.
CIEA Profile is published by the College Institute Educators' Association of B.C. CIEA is an independent union representing 7,000 faculty and staff in 18 locals at colleges, university-colleges, institutes, agencies and private institutions in British Columbia.