Part-time Concordia Faculty Threaten to Walk Off the Job

With only three weeks to go in the winter session, part-time faculty at Concordia University, in Quebec, Canada, are threatening to cancel classes and walk off the job.

Without a contract or wage increase for six years, union president Maria Peluso said, the 900 members of the Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association have had it with “being treated like a side order of french fries.”
Beginning Monday, lecturers – who teach 40 per cent of Concordia’s classes – will launch rotating strikes. Disruptions are expected to escalate as the semester draws to a close and students head into the crucial exam and marking period.

Chris Mota, director of media relations at Concordia, said that until the union spells out its strategy tomorrow, it’s difficult to say what impact a walkout would have on students and day-to-day operations at the university.

“Our students are our priority and we will do everything in our power to limit the impact on them.”

Meanwhile, Mota said, negotiations continue between Concordia and CUPFA, with the next session scheduled for tomorrow.

Part-time faculty at Concordia voted 97 per cent in favor of an unlimited strike, but postponed a walkout until now in hope of reaching a settlement.

“We’re mild and well-behaved, like nurses and doctors. It’s not in our bones genetically to be disruptive,” Peluso said. But she said her members are tired of waiting for a settlement — and have the support of student and faculty groups at Concordia and throughout the province.

Part-time professors at Concordia receive $5,400 to teach a three-credit, 13-week course. Peluso said that not only compares badly with the roughly $7,000 that lecturers at Université du Québec à Montréal and Université de Montréal receive, but with the $6,800 Concordia pays full-time faculty who teach an extra course on top of their regular workload.

CUPFA challenged that imbalance and won its case before the Quebec Court of Appeal, but has yet to receive extra compensation or retroactive pay.

But wages aren’t the only stumbling block. Part-time faculty complain that they have no job security and few benefits, such as disability insurance, a medical plan, pensions, parental leave or dedicated office space.

And while pay has been frozen since their contract expired April 14, 2002, workloads and class sizes have increased.

In March, Concordia reached a settlement with 450 clerical workers and support staff, who had been without a contract for 51/2 years. The union credits stepped-up pressure tactics, including a demonstration during the winter open house for potential students, with helping to push negotiations ahead.