Students have a lot at stake in possible sessional faculty strike

The future of McMaster’s learning environment is at stake as sessional faculty approve a strike mandate and negotiations with the university stall

McMaster sessional faculty represented by CUPE local 3906 are inching closer to a strike as bargaining continues to stall between the union and the university. While last December’s 83 per cent approval for a strike mandate, should negotiations fall through, doesn’t mean a strike is inevitable, students are going to have to consider what the possible labour action on campus might mean for them.

The potential strike, far from just a potential disruption, could be a major turning point for teaching and learning at McMaster.

Sessional faculty, faculty typically paid per class to teach, represent a significant amount of McMaster’s teaching workforce. The use of this poorly compensated and precarious workforce by the university represents a unique challenge to student learning.

The heavy demands placed on sessional faculty and the limited support provided to them by McMaster mean their ability to meet student needs, whether for accessibility, timeliness, or flexible office hours are limited.

The union and the university remain far from agreement on many issues as bargaining is likely to approach conciliation — a non-binding process in which a third party attempts to bring the negotiating parties closer to an agreement.

The disagreement between involved parties is over proposed pay increases and contract length. McMaster’s proposed pay increase would keep sessional faculties pay behind other universities for at least four years according to the union.

CUPE’s proposed 3-year contract is an attempt to align the collective bargaining process of multiple of the union’s contracts, which the union hopes will give them more leverage in future negotiations because of a higher risk of disruption from more employees.

From a student perspective the union’s demands are related to teaching and job security. The union has demanded a minimum of one TA per 50 students to support faculty and a responsibility for McMaster to offer sessional faculty who have taught a given course twice to teach that course again should it be re-run.

For factors largely beyond the control of individual sessional faculty, they are ill-equipped to best meet and exceed student needs. Sessional faculty are faced with heavy demands of their time, including often commuting between multiple schools, being given limited grading support and being forced to teach a larger number of classes in addition to other career requirements.

Students, faculty and administrations recognize the need for career-related mentorship between students and faculty, but without adequate time and compensation, this is a difficult need for sessional faculty to meet.

This divide between sessional faculty and students is replicated at the department level, where sessional faculty struggle to be included in a meaningful way in department operations.

Committing to job security for sessional staff makes both financial and educational sense. McMaster recognizes the need to invest in sessional faculty's teaching skills, which it does through the MacPherson Institute. So why are they unwilling to make a simple policy change to invest in sessional faculty's job security?

McMaster's goals of fostering a better learning environment can only benefit from this security. By allowing for longer term investment in secure sessional faculty's professional development, as well as rewarding sessional faculty's personal investment of time and effort into the university and students, the campus community can only benefit.

As the bargaining process escalates between McMaster and CUPE local 3906, students have more at stake than just a potential disruption to classes. McMaster and CUPE have the chance to strike a deal that benefits both student and sessional faculty, and that can facilitate better educational relationships between them.

McMaster’s stated objective to develop a flexible, personalized learning experience requires support be given to its hard working sessional faculty. It's now time for them to step up.