Bargaining for Contract Academic Staff at English Canadian Universities

Abstract

Successful unionization of, and conclusion of collective agreements for, contract academic staff in English Canada challenges the received wisdom that the Wagner Act model is an insurmountable obstacle to the unionization of contingent labor. It provides an example that might prove instructive for other contingent workers. This article describes the process of unionization of contract academic staff in English Canada and seeks to explain its relative success. The exceptional situation of contract academic staff as nonunionized workers in an otherwise unionized environment, access to the expertise and resources of large, national unions or associations and a sophisticated national strategy were contributing factors to successful unionization. The article also considers the degree to which contract academic staff collective agreements fulfill the promise of unionization. We analyze sample collective agreements, noting the variety and strength of various contractual models. We conclude by suggesting that contract academic staff have benefitted considerably from unionization. Despite these successes, the experience of contract academic staff supports critiques of the Wagner Act model as applied to contingent labor.

This Is Contract Faculty Time

“…… Faced with a restive mass of immaterial labour, university administrator's best strategybacked by centuries of academic hierarchy -is to ensure that the regular and contingent faculty remain divided. (p. 78) While non-unionized contract faculty are now the exception in English Canada and unionized contract faculty have benefited from unionization, the u.S. Wagner Act model of labour law still promotes a fractured bargaining environment that produces the wage disparity between full time and contract faculty (Hughes & Bell, 2015).…”

“…YuFA was formed in 1962 but faculty and full-time librarians organized a drive to form a trade union that was certified in 1977. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Canadian Association of university Teachers (CAuT) mobilized "regular academics" to unionize but it did not lead affiliates to include contract faculty (Hughes & Bell, 2015). As a result, "contract faculty" were not part of YuFA.…”