Fair Employment Week (FEW) is held in October every year. The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) started the event, inspired by Campus Equity Week, a similar event which takes place in the United States and Mexico. In turn, Campus Equity Week was inspired by a week of action carried out by more than 100 community colleges in California, two decades ago.
FEW focuses on faculty in temporary contracts, whose employment is precarious and unprotected. This is particularly a concern at Langara this year, with significant uncertainty about the repercussions of changes in federal and provincial government guidelines on international student caps and opportunities for employment and citizenship following a Canadian course of study.
The Langara Faculty Association’s Temporary Faculty Committee (TFC) marked FEW 2024 (which ran October 21st-25th) in a number of ways.
1. We sent a letter to the college President, Provost and Board Chair drawing attention to the continued plight of temporary faculty at Langara. Over the past decade, the proportion of temporary faculty employed at Langara has risen to approximately one-third of our total membership, and increasing numbers of temporary employees are being kept unnecessarily long in contracts that provide no job security. The letter emphasized the detrimental impact that exploitation of faculty in this manner has on students, faculty, and our institution. At the time of writing, we have not received a written response, although the Provost has been verbally supportive.
2. On Monday to Thursday, we ran an information table in A Building Foyer, to inform staff and students about the situation and to encourage their support. This was combined with a poster campaign, through which we gathered messages of support for temporary faculty. We plan on collating these messages and directing them to our administration.
3. All temporary faculty were invited to drop in to the LFA office (A 212) to do any or all of: ask employment-related questions, chat or snack. A number of folks passed through, and all were able to get clarification on issues of concern.
4. On the Monday evening, I represented the LFA at the Fair Employment Week pub night, which was held at Steamworks downtown and was hosted by FPSE and other institutions. This provided an opportunity for temporary faculty and allies to connect and to share their mutual support.
Most recently, Pauline Greaves, LFA president, was interviewed by City News (https://vancouver.citynews.ca/video/2024/11/08/langara-college-instructors-union-concerned-about-increasing-layoffs/), where she spoke strongly on union concerns about temporary faculty. She has also been interviewed by the Sun and the Globe and Mail.
I would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who got involved in our activities last week. Special thanks to Catherine Glass and Pauline Greaves for running the drop-in coffee sessions, to Cathy Huth for the genius idea of having interactive posters, and to everyone who served on the information table. In my experience, this was the most lively and effective set of FEW activities that we have done, and I hope that we can continue to build on the momentum to effect real improvements in the situation of temporary faculty as we go forward.
If you would like to know more about the LFA TFC, please feel free to email Niall Christie (temporary faculty committee chair) at: nchristie@yourlfa.ca