We received this from a full time faculty member who has been watching quality of education in the college system erode.
It’s Our Turn
I’ve found that my time on the picket line provides a great deal of time to think. Instead of my head being filled with lesson plans, due dates, and evaluations, I instead have a singular focus: the strike. A question that I’m contemplating is: why do I support the strike? There are three main reasons.
Respect for Employees
Prior to coming to the college, I spent 20+ years working for an organization that continually demonstrated a healthy respect for the well being of all its employees - from the top executives to the newest entry level positions. Yes, hard decisions needed to be made but these decisions were carried out with utmost care regarding the communication, compensation, and transition of affected employees. This is where I learned about how to treat people. I integrate these learnings into my course content and materials.
Unfortunately, this is not our current environment. While I enjoy the protection of the Collective Agreement, I watch as my fellow contract colleagues are treated differently. This includes:
Often being assigned courses with little to no preparation time.
Receiving an hourly teaching rate that effectively translates to minimum wage in many cases once preparation, evaluation, and student interaction is factored in.
Living in an environment where your next term’s employment is implicitly based on your latest SATs and compliance to management directives.
If the college cannot treat people with the respect they deserve, then a strong Collective Agreement is needed to enforce this respect.
Collegial Environment
When I started with the college over 10 years ago, the environment was very different. I was surrounded by other full-time faculty. I attended program meetings, run by faculty, where the connections between courses were discussed and issues resolved.
With the growing percentage of contract faculty, this has changed. The focus has shifted from the development of course materials to the recycling of course materials. Powerpoint slides, assignments, and tests move from course to course often with little or no modification. During one picket line conversation, I talked to a contract faculty member who coordinates a program with three intakes per year and hundreds of students enrolled annually. The number of full-time faculty: zero. Without a change in course, this is the future that we are heading toward.
I believe to teach is to create. There is something lost when faculty are not provided the time to develop materials based on their experience and personal teaching style. In a collegial environment, faculty members would have the time to collaborate by exchanging materials and ideas willingly.
This type of collegial environment is realistically only possible with a higher number of full-time faculty. The 50/50 ratio in the union’s proposal moves us in the right direction.
A Cause Bigger than Yourself
As a full-time faculty member, the College Council’s salary increase at least keeps up (somewhat) with inflation and otherwise more-or-less maintains the status quo. It would be easy to say “good enough” and settle. If only thinking of myself, perhaps this would be an appropriate decision.
However, I do not want to retire in a few years and look back to realize that I was the part of the last generation of full-time faculty. Sometimes, when the cause is important enough, you need to put aside your own needs and work for what is right.
Prior to writing this blog, I did some research regarding the history of our collective bargaining process. The first strike took place in 1984 (aptly enough) with the result being the development of the Standard Work Formula (SWF). For those contract faculty not familiar with the SWF, it is a formula that calculates the number of hours based on many variables such as whether a course has been taught before, number of students, and the type of evaluation performed. While it is not perfect, it does provide a reasonable measure of the work that a faculty member can perform.
I am very thankful that such a formula exists. I shudder to think about the demands that would be placed on me without it. However, it was not introduced willingly. It exists only because the faculty in 1984 took a stand, sacrificing their own income for the greater good.
It is now our turn to do so. Like the faculty of 1984, we need to sacrifice both time and income to do what is right. This is a “pay it forward” moment.
Note: In 1989 the second strike took place. The colleges wanted to remove the SWF from the Collective Agreement. It appears they didn’t like it.
Summary
I have a confession to make: after spending many years in a management role at my previous employer (non-union environment), I came into this job with a very anti-union outlook. I did not actively support the union for the first few years. However, over time, my opinion evolved. At some point, I realized that it was the union that had attained (and maintained) the things about my job that I love. And it was also the union that was preventing management from treating me as they do my contract colleagues. From this point on, I fully supported the union.
As this strike continues, I will think of the reasons listed above.