Casualization of Academic Labour at York University: A Discussion Paper

Casualization of Academic Labour at York University: A Discussion Paper

Prepared for the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) Membership by the YUFA Subcommittee on Casualization

Members: Nicola Short, Hira Singh, Justin Podur, and Ray Rogers

5/12/2009

This discussion paper comes out of a motion passed at YUFA's 3 March Special General Meeting:

That YUFA Executive act as soon as possible to strike a subcommittee to produce a discussion paper that places recent labour negotiations and YUFA's upcoming negotiations within the broader context of cuts to the funding of post-secondary education, a significant reduction in hiring for tenure-stream jobs, an increasing reliance on contingent labour, equity issues, increasing class sizes, and expanding workloads, all of which contribute to a general erosion of the quality of education. The subcommittee will call upon leading scholars in the field at York, as well as the ongoing work of existing YUFA committees. The discussion paper will be distributed to members on YUFA-M for discussion and subsequently considered for distribution to the media. Carried.

The motion reflects the recognition that academic institutions have undergone a great deal of relatively rapid reorganization in recent years, which has affected the working conditions and traditional structures of faculty governance in the university. Such changes demand new perspectives and analysis among faculty and their union representation.

University faculty have a role to play in promoting rigorous and meaningful scholarship and pedagogy, and, as a result, in analyzing the performance and governance of the university to ensure that the space to pursue these endeavours is maintained and adequately supported.

It should be noted that despite the striking of this subcommittee by a SGM of YUFA, it is clear that YUFA has only belatedly come to grips with the issue of casualization as it develops bargaining positions. We hope that our discussion paper plays a role in catalyzing both the executive and the membership in taking these issues seriously.

To read the complete paper, click on the attached Paper on Casualization.

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