Sessionals on strike?

CUPE 3909 asks members to reject university’s proposal package

Chelsea Moore Staff

In a letter sent out on January 31, 2006, the CUPE 3909 bargaining team made it very clear that they are not satisfied with what the University of Manitoba has proposed for the new contract being negotiated for sessional instructors, librarians and counsellors.

Instead, Ana Vialard, a sessional professor at the U of M who is on the union’s negotiating team, said the team will recommend that members reject the proposal package in the February 8 - 9 vote. If this happens, the result may be a strike.

Denise Fuchs, a sessional instructor of six years who teaches Canadian history at the U of M, said that she will vote, but going on strike would take “very serious consideration.”

“We’re almost half way through second term,” noted Fuchs, “so it’s unfair to the students. It would leave them hanging.”

The university will not comment on the negotiations being made, as negotiations are still in progress.

“We understand it’s being taken to the membership for a vote,” said John Danakas, the director of public affairs for the university. “We’ll wait for the result of that vote, and hope for a positive outcome.”

The proposal package brought forth by the university includes several changes, one being the ability of sessionals to earn a “first right of refusal” for a course that they have taught “satisfactorily” for five consecutive academic terms, starting from September 2005.

According to Fuchs, however, “[f]ive is too long. The same course is not often offered five consecutive times in a row,” said Fuchs.

“It’s just too long to expect one person in a position such as a sessional to do it for that long, before they can benefit from it, before they can be sure that they can teach it again,” she added.

Terry Russell, a professor in the department of Asian studies at the U of M, used to be a sessional instructor at the University of British Columbia.

“My experience at UBC was that a sessional is a pretty thankless kind of job,” said Russell.

“It’s very thankless because you’re really nobody in terms of academics, you’re just a labourer in the trenches.

“There are no benefits in terms of research leave or research money,” he added.

For a sessional at the U of M, job security is among one of the top concerns, according to Fuchs.

“You go from contract to contract, so you literally don’t even know whether you’ll be working in the next term,” noted Fuchs. “You don’t now what courses are going to be offered for sessionals.”

“It’s a very insecure position to be in,” she added.

Another proposal that the university has made is to specifically recognize the “right to grieve discipline” in the new contract, as well as a provision for “progressive discipline” that states that oral and written warnings must be given to instructors prior to their dismissal.

“If I were a sessional,” said Russell, “I would definitely be wanting not just better job security, but more recognition for what I was doing, and more opportunities to expand and develop my skills — rather than just sort of being . . . somebody who has fixed skills, and that’s the end of the story.”