Category Archives: Working conditions

ICES Appeal to Boost Support BCTF Petition to 500+

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Post-secondary Support of Teachers / BCTF Petition

We want to forward this petition to the Ministry at the 500+ mark today or tomorrow morning. Please circulate and let’s boost this to 500+! We are currently at 399 signatures…

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Posted in BC Education, Employment rights, Free speech, Government, Organizing, Protests, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged K-12 issues, Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Working conditions

BC Ministry Proposes to Make Teachers Pay for Job Action

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

BCTF President Lambert (Photo by Rick Ernst, PNG)

As if Bill 22 could not get worse for labour, the British Columbia Ministry of Education proposed today to make teachers pay for past job action. The BCTF rejected out of hand Minister Abbott’s proposal that teachers retroactively make up work lost to job action. BCTF President Susan Lambert scoffed that “Minister Abbott is ignoring a commonly accepted labour relations principle: struck work is simply not done.” Increasingly, the BC Liberals seem intent on decimating long-established principles of labour and, as UBC Professor Joel Bakan wrote in the Vancouver Sun, wanting to play fast and loose with labour law. “Governments are obliged to govern according to law,” said Bakan. “That is what distinguishes democracies from tyrannies. As a fundamental democratic principle, the rule of law is seriously jeopardized when governments play fast and loose with constitutional and international laws, as this government is now doing with Bill 22.”

Attempting to slow the the rushed passage of the questionable legislation, the NDP’s John Horgan introduced an amendment today to delete most of Bill 22 and bring in a mediator to, although it will be defeated, introduce fairness into the process. The amendment states: “it is not in the best interests of the education system in British Columbia for the government to legislate teachers back to work when an independent mediator could be appointed by the government and the Labour Relations Board to resolve the collective bargaining dispute without legislation.”

“Proverbial snowflake, hellbound” is Liberals’ Fate in BC

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

For two solid days in dozens of cities and towns across British Columbia, tens of thousands of students, parents, faculty members, peer unions, and the BC Federation of Labour turned out in support of the BCTF and teachers. For the rally in Victoria yesterday, the President of the Canadian Federation of teachers flew across the country to be there, as did peer teaching union presidents and representatives from as far as Nova Scotia. This is bigger than the BCTF BC Fed President Jim Sinclair announced over the last two days. For the BC Fed and everyone showing their solidarity, this is about standing up for the province, for what is right and just, for rights, for workers, for people young and old struggling from day to day as citizens. This is about democratic rule and the BCTF and BC Fed are in this for the long haul. BCTF President Susan Lambert rallied today in Vancouver, promising the BC Liberals’ as they move on oppressive, debilitating legislation, that this governing party’s chance of re-election is that of a “proverbial snowflake, hellbound!”

BCTF President Lambert Speaks out at Vancouver Rally

That’s powerful and resonates with the vast system of public support that is turning out for the rallies across the province. To try and govern workers– to try and suppress a labour movement that is ascendent and increasingly unified– with this might of legislation, Bill 22, is foolish. The opposition party, the NDP in BC, is doing all it can to undermine and debate this anti-democratic legislation that is Bill 22. Adrian Dix, Leader of the NDP, guaranteed the labour movement yesterday in Victoria that his party was not resting and would do everything in its power to give teachers the fair right to bargain– a right that every public or private sector union or professional association deserves.

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Posted in BC Education, Employment rights, Government, K-12 issues, Organizing, Protests, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged K-12 issues, Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions, Working conditions

This is What Solidarity Looks Like

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Stephen Petrina | 1 comment

15,000-20,000 rallied across the province while about 6,000 marched on BC legislature in Victoria to support BC teachers and stand up for BC. The BC Federation of Labour organized the rally and with short notice the BCTF and peer unions in the BCFed summoned the show of force. Parents and their children showed up by the thousands at today’s rally. The halls of legislature shook, with the government nervously hearing BIll 22 while thousands joined in unison to drown out the oppressive measures, including outrageous fines for doing exactly what the BCTF and its widespread public support was doing. “Shame” on the BC Liberals the crowd chanted as speaker after speaker described the debilitating conditions under which the teachers and the BCTF are now placed.

“This is what solidarity looks like” announced BCFed President Jim Sinclair moments before bringing on BCTF President Susan Lambert. Past BCTF President Irene Lanzinger, now secretary-treasurer of the BCFed emceed the rally. More to follow from ICES…

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Posted in BC Education, Employment rights, Free speech, K-12 issues, Labor Programs, Organizing, Solidarity, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged K-12 issues, Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions, Working conditions

BC Federation of Labour Plans Rally & Petition

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

The BC Fed is Rallying at the Legislature, moving on a massive petition, and planning rallies around the province. Support the Teachers / Stand up for BC !!!

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Posted in BC Education, Employment rights, Free speech, Protests, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged K-12 issues, Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions

Kill Bill 22 in BC Legislature Petition

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Stephen Petrina | 4 comments

Sign the Kill Bill 22 Petition

The B.C. Govt is removing teachers’ right to fair contract negotiations and is continuing to cut funding for public education and in particular, special education support.

We need your help to protect the children and teachers of British Columbia. Please sign the Petition.

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Posted in BC Education, K-12 issues, Protests, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged K-12 issues, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions

Unions Confront the Fault Lines Between Adjuncts and Full-Timers

Posted on December 1, 2011 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

The Chronicle: Unions Confront the Fault Lines Between Adjuncts and Full-Timers
Some look beyond the big unions for real improvement in working conditions

The largest organizers of college faculty unions—the American Association of University Professors, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association—have made big strides in recruiting adjunct instructors and helping them gain representation through collective bargaining.

But the three groups have a long way to go before their membership and their leadership reflect the dominant role that adjunct instructors play in the higher-education work force, a Chronicle survey of the organizations reveals. Such instructors now account for about two-thirds of all faculty members employed by public and private colleges.

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Posted in Contingent labor, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged AAUP, adjuncts, AFT, NEA, Unions, Working conditions

Two Scandals, One Connection: The FBI link between Penn State and UC Davis

Posted on November 24, 2011 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

Two Scandals, One Connection: The FBI link between Penn State and UC Davis
Dave Zirin

Two shocking scandals. Two esteemed universities. Two disgraced university leaders. One stunning connection. Over the last month, we’ve seen Penn State University President Graham Spanier dismissed from his duties and we’ve seen UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi pushed to the brink of resignation. Spanier was jettisoned because of what appears to be a systematic cover-up of assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s serial child rape. Katehi has faced calls to resign after the she sent campus police to blast pepper spray in the faces of her peaceably assembled students, an act for which she claims “full responsibility.” The university’s Faculty Association has since voted for her ouster citing a “gross failure of leadership.” The names Spanier and Katehi are now synonymous with the worst abuses of institutional power. But their connection didn’t begin there. In 2010, Spanier chose Katehi to join an elite team of twenty college presidents on what’s called the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, which “promotes discussion and outreach between research universities and the FBI.”

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Posted in Academic freedom, Athletics, Corporate University, Crime, Intellectual property, Safety & Security, Working conditions

Tagged FBI, Penn State, UC Davis

Red Scare at Georgia university

Posted on March 22, 2011 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

Inside Higher Ed: The Would-Be Provost Who Quoted Marx

“In the university, the higher up the hierarchical structure, the more one has decision-making power and the further one is from the actual ‘work’ (discovering and disseminating knowledge).”

Timothy J. L. Chandler, the co-author of a 1998 journal article with that quote about university hierarchies, is going to stay a step closer to actual work. On Thursday, he announced that he is turning down the position of provost at Kennesaw State University — in part because of furor set off in the local area over the article, which applies class analysis and several times cites Marx.

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Posted in Academic freedom, Academics, Administration, Working conditions

Tagged Academic freedom, Administration, Kennesaw State U, Marx, Red scare, work

Survey on Contract Faculty closes November 30

Posted on November 29, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

The Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW), a widespread group of academic associations in the United States, is conducting an extensive survey on the salaries, benefits, working conditions of contract faculty in North America. Although the welcome page suggests that the survey is aimed at contract faculty working in the U.S., CAW is also clearly interested in data from Canada.

The survey takes less than ten minutes to complete about is open until Tuesday, November 30, and can be accessed at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VNNNRVS

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Posted in Contingent labor, Working conditions

Tagged adjuncts, Contingent labor, survey, Working conditions

SO YOU WANT TO GET A PHD IN THE HUMANITIES

Posted on October 27, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

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Posted in Faculty, Job market, Students, Working conditions

Tagged Faculty, funny, graduate school, Job market, Students, video, Working conditions

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Bethune Cookman

Posted on October 25, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

AAUP Academic Freedom and Tenure: Bethune Cookman

An Association investigating committee report on Bethune-Cookman University in Florida deals with the 2009 dismissal of four professors and the termination of the services of three additional faculty members. The stated reasons for these actions ranged from charges of sexual harassment of students to claims of insufficient academic credentials to the purported need to reduce the size of the faculty for financial reasons. The report concludes that, in each case, the professors were denied virtually all AAUP-supported protections of academic due process. It further concludes that the administration’s reliance in the dismissals on outside investigators, consultants, and attorneys to deal with matters for which the faculty should have responsibility speaks poorly for the climate of shared governance at the institution.

Read the report (.pdf).

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Posted in Academic freedom, Faculty, Tenure & Promotion, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged AAUP, Academic freedom, Bethune-Cookman U, reports, tenure, terminations

AAUP Accuses Bethune-Cookman U. of Denying Due Process to 7 Dismissed Professors

Posted on October 25, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

The Chronicle: AAUP Accuses Bethune-Cookman U. of Denying Due Process to 7 Dismissed Professors

An investigative panel of the American Association of University Professors has accused Bethune-Cookman University of denying due process to seven dismissed professors, including four men who, the panel says, were fired for sexual harassment based mainly on hearsay and on complaints from unnamed students relayed to administrators by a consultant.

In a report issued on Friday, the AAUP panel broadly characterized Bethune-Cookman, a historically black college in Daytona Beach, Fla., of being “repressive of academic freedom.”

“A pervasive atmosphere currently exists at Bethune-Cookman University in which the administration supports favorites and ignores or punishes those who fall out of favor or who question, contend, or appeal,” the report says. “No adequate mechanism or procedure exists for the impartial or balanced hearing of grievances.”

Officials at Bethune-Cookman said on Monday that they planned to respond to the AAUP report, but were not yet prepared to do so.

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Posted in Tenure & Promotion, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged AAUP, Academic freedom, Bethune-Cookman U, due process, Faculty, terminations, Unions

U of Iowa goes on adjunct hiring binge

Posted on September 9, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

Daily Iowan: UI increases temporary workforce

The University of Iowa has increased its temporary workforce by nearly10 percent this year to accommodate an influx of freshmen.

This year, 2,308 temporary faculty are employed at the university — up from 2,104 in 2009, said Tom Rice, associate provost for faculty.

Despite recent budget cuts, which resulted in the loss of 150 half-time employees, more tuition revenue from this year’s larger freshman class allowed for the boost in temporary workforce hiring, officials said.

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Posted in Contingent labor, Working conditions

Tagged adjuncts, Contingent labor, hiring

Nova Southeastern U. Contractor Is Ordered to Rehire Janitors Fired Over Union Activities

Posted on September 8, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

Miami Herald: Fired NSU janitors must be rehired, federal agency says

Three Nova Southeastern University janitors will get their jobs back after a federal panel ruled they were illegally targeted.

Three former Nova Southeastern University janitors who lost their jobs during a unionizing drive at the school in 2007 must be reinstated to their old posts, a federal labor agency has ruled — and each will also receive tens of thousands of dollars in back pay.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/04/1807712/fired-nsu-janitors-must-be-rehired.html#ixzz0yyv7ohlv

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Posted in Legal issues, Organizing, Solidarity, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged Legal issues, Nova Southeastern U, Organizing

Professors at U. of North Texas Are Required to Put in Daily Hours on Campus

Posted on September 3, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

The Chronicle: Professors at U. of North Texas Are Required to Put in Daily Hours on Campus

Faculty members in the University of North Texas’ College of Public Affairs and Community Service have new work rules this year. They are required to spend at least four hours a day, four days a week on campus, on top of the time they spend in the classroom, under a policy adopted last week.

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Posted in Corporate University, Working conditions

The “Communication Thing”

Posted on September 2, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

Thanks to Philip K. for the tip.

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Posted in Administration, Campus Life, Corporate University, Just kidding, Shared governance, Working conditions

Tagged Corporate University, University presidents

Missouri State U. Faculty Members Can Now Be Reassigned Without Their Consent

Posted on April 13, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

The Chronicle: Missouri State U. Faculty Members Can Now Be Reassigned Without Their Consent

Defying the wishes of faculty leaders and a standing committee established by their institution’s provost, the Board of Governors of Missouri State University has altered its policies to state that faculty members there—including those with tenure—can be temporarily reassigned to other duties without their consent.

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Posted in Working conditions

Tagged Faculty, Missouri State U

Outsourced Grading, With Supporters and Critics, Comes to College

Posted on April 6, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

The Chronicle: Some Papers Are Uploaded to Bangalore to Be Graded

Lori Whisenant knows that one way to improve the writing skills of undergraduates is to make them write more. But as each student in her course in business law and ethics at the University of Houston began to crank out—often awkwardly—nearly 5,000 words a semester, it became clear to her that what would really help them was consistent, detailed feedback.

Her seven teaching assistants, some of whom did not have much experience, couldn’t deliver. Their workload was staggering: About 1,000 juniors and seniors enroll in the course each year. “Our graders were great,” she says, “but they were not experts in providing feedback.”

That shortcoming led Ms. Whisenant, director of business law and ethics studies at Houston, to a novel solution last fall. She outsourced assignment grading to a company whose employees are mostly in Asia.

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Posted in Academics, Working conditions

Tagged grading, outsourcing

Adjuncts, job security and compensation…How Fast Is Fast Enough?

Posted on March 29, 2010 by E Wayne Ross | Comments Off

Inside Higher Ed: How Fast Is Fast Enough?

SAN JOSE — At a forum for adjunct faculty members Saturday, organizers asked participants to write down notes about their concerns about job security and compensation issues. The first note read aloud asked: “How do we get multi-year contracts?” To which one adjunct in the crowd shouted: “How can we get one-year contracts?”

The differing perspectives reflected in the exchange were present throughout the forum and other sessions here at the biennial joint meeting of the higher education divisions of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. Both unions have placed more emphasis on adjunct issues in recent years — and both can point to organizing drives and contract successes as a result.

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Posted in Contingent labor, Salary/Economic Benefits, Working conditions

Tagged adjuncts, Contingent labor, Salary/Economic Benefits, Working conditions

Category Archives: Working conditions

ICES Appeal to Boost Support BCTF Petition to 500+

BC Ministry Proposes to Make Teachers Pay for Job Action

“Proverbial snowflake, hellbound” is Liberals’ Fate in BC

This is What Solidarity Looks Like

BC Federation of Labour Plans Rally & Petition

Kill Bill 22 in BC Legislature Petition

Unions Confront the Fault Lines Between Adjuncts and Full-Timers

Two Scandals, One Connection: The FBI link between Penn State and UC Davis

Red Scare at Georgia university

Survey on Contract Faculty closes November 30

SO YOU WANT TO GET A PHD IN THE HUMANITIES

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Bethune Cookman

AAUP Accuses Bethune-Cookman U. of Denying Due Process to 7 Dismissed Professors

U of Iowa goes on adjunct hiring binge

Nova Southeastern U. Contractor Is Ordered to Rehire Janitors Fired Over Union Activities

Professors at U. of North Texas Are Required to Put in Daily Hours on Campus

The “Communication Thing”

Missouri State U. Faculty Members Can Now Be Reassigned Without Their Consent

Outsourced Grading, With Supporters and Critics, Comes to College

Adjuncts, job security and compensation…How Fast Is Fast Enough?

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