The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) has made a written submission to the provincial government’s Changing Workplaces Review . It calls for government leadership to address the rise of precarious work at Ontario’s universities. OCUFA estimates that the number of contract faculty has nearly doubled since 2000. “Faculty see how this shift toward insecure, low-paid jobs […]
precarious
This spring, the Nipissing University Faculty Association (NUFA) has been working hard with community and labour partners in North Bay to put precarious work on the political agenda. On April 14, NUFA co-hosted a Precarious Labour Forum with the North Bay and District Labour Council that brought together many different unions, worker groups and student groups. Five panelists, […]
“If you understand what is happening in society, you understand what is happening in our universities”. Wayne Lewchuk opened the forum about the changing nature of academic labour with a powerful statement that in every part of our economy, including our universities, there is a growing number of precarious jobs. A recent study, which he […]
Last night, TVO’s The Agenda featured Kane Faucher, a contract faculty member at Western and Laurier, discussing the experience and challenges of precarious work . The segment was part of a program examining the rise of casual and part-time work in the Canadian economy. Precarious work is no longer just found in so-called low-skilled jobs- it now cuts across white collar and professional […]
A new American study by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce illuminates the challenging working conditions of precarious contract faculty in American universities. The report, titled The Just-in-Time Professor, finds that the growing trend of contract work in academia is forcing many highly-skilled individuals to struggle with low pay, poor benefits, job instability, […]