Higher education faculty from 16 states and four Canadian provinces gathered in San Jose, California recently for COCAL IV, a national conference on contingent academic labour. The January conference, hosted by the California Part-time Faculty Association (CPFA), brought together more than 150 activists and organizers to seek solutions for one of the most serious problems facing college and university educators — the exploitation and overuse of contract academic staff.
"Use of marginalized professionals on temporary assignment to staff our colleges and universities is short-sighted," said Lantz Simpson, CPFA legislative analyst and president of the Santa Monica College Faculty Association. "It exploits the idealism of faculty while hiding actual costs incurred from increased administrative workload. It also burdens regular full-time faculty who must shoulder an increasing amount of the professional activities demanded by quality academic institutions."
This was the fourth conference organized by the Coalition on Contingent Academic Labour (COCAL), and the first to be held on the west coast. Previous gatherings took place in Washington, D.C., New York and Boston. With each event the coalition has expanded its base of support to include more than 40 organizations, both faculty unions and professional associations.
The organizers of COCAL IV also initiated steps to link with students and with other campus employee groups, as well as with more broad-based labour campaigns addressing the pressing issue of contingent work. And the conference provided participants with numerous opportunities to discuss organizing and collective bargaining strategies, share success stories, and develop new coalitions.
An unexpected number of Canadians attended, thereby providing a unique opportunity for inter-union exchange. Among the Canadian organizations represented were CAUT, the College Institute Educators' Association of British Columbia (CIEA-BC), the Association of Academic Staff: University of Alberta (AAS:UA), the Concordia Part-time Faculty Association, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and la Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ-CSN).
"Although there is a great diversity of state and provincial laws governing contract workers, and a great variety of associations, bargaining units and unions that have organized these workers, the issues that arise are amazingly similar in nature," said Brenda McLean, a sessional instructor at the University of Alberta and member of the AAS:UA executive. "All of us lack job security, equitable pay, benefits, pensions, and suitable working conditions to varying degrees.
"We are seemingly cheap labour pursuing a career to which we are committed. But we don't often receive the respect we are due. This conference was helpful to me on a local level, as I was able to connect with other union representatives and collect information that will help my association when we proceed into agreement review this spring."
COCAL participants, many of whom work in community colleges in the U.S., were particularly interested in Linda Sperling's account of CIEA's regularization campaign, which resulted in the conversion of many contract faculty to permanent positions.
The successful outcome of Action 2000, the California Part-time Faculty Association's public awareness campaign for part-time faculty equity, was discussed at length. The campaign resulted in a commitment from California Governor Gray Davis to earmark $62 million in the 20012002 state budget to reduce the inequity of community college part-time faculty compensation.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that the inequities under which non-tenure track faculty are employed are as damaging to our institutions and our students' education as they are to the lives of faculty members. Governor Davis's bold action signals a major shift in public policy priorities," said Chris Storer, executive council chair of the California association.
Energized by these and other success stories, conference participants unanimously voted to increase outreach efforts to their own academic communities, and more broadly, to the public at large and public policy decision-makers by holding a Canada-U.S. "equity week of action" projected for the fall of 2001.
A steering committee was established to plan concurrent actions across North America to heighten awareness and increase pressure for change. The steering committee will develop a broad plan, seek support from sponsoring organizations, and report back to COCAL participants before April when equity week plans will be formally announced.
A proposal by the Canadian delegation to host COCAL V in Montreal was received enthusiastically by participants.
Information on the work of the Coalition on Contingent Academic Labour can be obtained at www.cpfa.org/cocal.