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Fairness for Contract Faculty

It’s time for job security, fair pay, and benefits for contract faculty!

On March 11, join our call to Stop the Gigification of Teaching by taking part in our Social Media Day of Action.

Read and share the op-ed to highlight how stronger provincial funding can improve job security, ensure fair pay, and expand access to benefits for contract faculty – strengthening student learning and the future of our universities.

Read Rob Kristofferson’s op-ed:
Ontario’s universities are being run on gig work—and students are paying the price

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Every year, OCUFA’s Contract Faculty Committee hosts a social media day of action to build momentum for #Fairness4CF. Faculty members and allies can help amplify the message by participating online and on campus. Below are a few ways you can amplify the message:

  • Speak about your lived experience and what job security, fair pay, and access to benefits would mean for your teaching and student support. 
    • Share a specific moment when you made a meaningful difference for a student or your campus community. 
    • How would smaller, well-supported classes allow you to deliver more engaging, innovative, or personalized teaching? 
    • What would stable employment mean for your ability to plan courses, mentor students long-term, or participate more fully in academic life? 
    • How would access to benefits and predictable income affect your wellbeing, family life, or research and professional development? 
  • Start conversations with colleagues about how to build stronger, more supportive networks for contract faculty on your campus. 
  • Highlight the value of stable faculty teams in strengthening departments, student learning, research culture, and institutional governance. 
    • How does high turnover among contract faculty affect program continuity or curriculum development?  
    • What is lost when experienced faculty are not rehired or supported?
    • How does precarity undermine collegial governance and academic freedom, or long-term planning?  
  • Support conversations within your units about improving working conditions for contract colleagues.  
  • Use your position to advocate internally. 
    • Raise the issue in department meetings or faculty councils. 
    • Support equitable hiring, longer-term appointments, and meaningful inclusion of contract colleagues in governance and service. 
    • Reflect publicly on how improving contract faculty working conditions benefits students and the academic community as a whole. 
  • Speak to how stable faculty relationships enhance your learning and mentorship. 
    • Describe your experience in overcrowded or high-turnover classes, and how smaller, well-supported classes would improve your education. 
    • Tell a story about a contract professor who supported, inspired, or helped you succeed. 
    • Reflect on how much more time, mentorship, and feedback faculty could provide if they had secure, fair working conditions. 
  • Encourage your friends and classmates to amplify the campaign. 
  • Circulate the op-ed widely through newsletters, listservs, and social media channels.
  • Create space for dialogue – host informal conversations over coffee, at meetings, or online about strengthening working conditions and resisting the gigification of teaching.
  • Collaborate across campus groups to reinforce that fairness for contract faculty strengthens the entire postsecondary system.