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What's Behind New Labour Militancy at BC Universities?

One aspect is the increasing 'corporatization' of higher ed.

Tom Sandborn 19 Mar 2015TheTyee.ca

Tom Sandborn has covered labour and health policy beats for The Tyee for more than a decade. He currently writes two columns of analysis on these topics each month, and welcomes reader feedback and column suggestions here.

In the chilly pre-dawn darkness, with light snow powdering the shoulders of their parkas, labour picketers in Prince George gathered outside their workplace on March 5. The northern British Columbia town, a key service hub for surrounding industry, has seen its share of labour disputes over the years.

This time, however, it wasn't mill workers or loggers holding up the placards. Teachers, librarians and senior lab instructors -- all members of the University of Northern BC's Faculty Association -- were on strike, the first ever of its kind at a B.C. research-based postsecondary institution.

The strike reflects a new trend in the province's labour relations, one that will see union density increase in the postsecondary education sector as it decreases in more traditionally organized sectors. Though banned by law in Alberta, unionized faculty groups are now present on 80 per cent of Canadian postsecondary campuses, with recent union certifications at the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University.

Faculty are unionizing in an attempt to improve their own wages and working conditions, but also to offset the increasing influence of the market in higher education. This is evident in increased pressure on faculty to conduct research in partnership with big business, increased focus on job training over critical thinking, and more teaching conducted by low-paid, sessional staff rather than full-time tenured faculty.

"We seem to have adopted the general view that the university is not so much an academic place -- quiet and isolated from the great pressures of society -- as it is a kind of business," Bill Bruneau, former head of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, recently told the CBC.

Robert Clift of the BC Confederation of Faculty Associations said last year that changing political and economic landscapes have "created a new breed of university manager who has traded leadership for 'boss-ship' and who is often more concerned with the bottom line than the quality of the student experience and scholarly output."

In short, critics like Bruneau and Clift argue that the emergence of new faculty unions should teach academic employers this lesson: if you object to unionization and the non-collegial, adversarial tone that can emerge in labour disputes, you might consider not treating faculty like factory workers.

Fighting a wage gap

Picketers like UNBC faculty association president Jacqueline Holler are on the line to demand fair salaries, because their pay is much lower than wages at other universities in the same category. "Depending on rank and years in rank, the wage gap is anywhere from a few thousand dollars to $30,000 [for senior full professors]," Holler says. "For a mid-range associate professor, the gap between us and our comparators is somewhere in the range of 15K."

Faculty and supporters say this unfair, especially as the university was ranked the number two school in its category across Canada by the prestigious annual Maclean's magazine survey. They argue the pay gap will increasingly threaten retention of senior faculty and, as gender studies grad student Ley Fraser says, "undermine faculty and degrade the value of my degree."

But Holler says the wage gap reflects a wider trend. "The corporatization of the university is reflected in the diminution of the academic mission as reflected in budgeting priorities," she says.

"Massive amounts of money are being spent on capital projects of dubious value. Such projects may not contribute to the academic mission, but do contribute to 'branding' and competition for students, which are increasingly at the heart of universities' business plans."

In a March 12 letter to university president Daniel Weeks, 17 faculty members, all current or past holders of research chairs at the school, wrote: "We are on strike because we are concerned for the future of our university and are writing because we believe now is the time to address the broken salary structure."

But Rob van Adrichem, the university's vice president for external relations, says that it isn't possible to close the wage gap between UNBC faculty and those who teach at comparable schools during this contract negotiation. He says that recent government funding cuts -- $1.2 million over three years -- and the demands of the province's public sector bargaining mandate mean that the university doesn't have "much room to move" on faculty raises.

Union spokespeople, in turn, point to the arbitration award made last year by Vince Ready, B.C.'s labour relations superstar, in which Ready indicated that the bargaining mandate did not necessarily limit raises at UNBC and that the school, which has posted a number of surpluses over the years, has the resources to go beyond the limits.

But van Adrichem says that the school's situation had changed considerably for the worse since Ready made his ruling last fall, due to ongoing funding cuts and decreased enrolment.

New era of militancy

That hasn't seemed to deter the approximately 4,000 UNBC students in support of the faculty's demands for higher wages. They've organized a Facebook page and a weekend rally to express their support.

A small group of students led by activist Ian Newcombe has met several times with university administrators to express their concern that a protracted strike could cost them the credits they would otherwise earn this semester, and to demand a refund of tuition if that happens.

Backed by impressive expressions of solidarity from students, CUPE-organized service workers on campus, and other faculty unions across Canada, the UNBC faculty will likely maintain their picket lines until they see at least partial progress on their wage demands.

This is a trend that is not going to go away any time soon. The administrators and politicians who control funding and conditions on B.C. campuses would be well advised to reflect seriously on the twinned and escalating trends of increased corporatization and militant faculty unions.

Neither will disappear when UNBC settles this dispute, and they have serious implications for the future of education and of the labour movement in B.C.

**Story update, 12 a.m.:

The University of Northern British Columbia has applied for a mediator, effectively suspending the two-week strike by faculty. Classes are to resume Friday, according to a statement from UNBC president Daniel Weeks.

The university applied for the mediator through the Labour Relations Board, Weeks said in a statement Wednesday night.

"It has become increasingly clear that the faculty association strike is having a significant impact on our students' lives and the entire UNBC community," he said.

If mediation doesn't result in a collective agreement, Weeks said the faculty association would be in a position to resume the strike.  [Tyee]

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