Advocate Online

On the Road
with Valerie Wilk

NEA higher ed leaders from California, Illinois, and Oregon were among the presenters at the 7th international conference of the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) in August in Vancouver, Canada. They joined more than 200 attendees from Canada, the United States, and Mexico who convened for a weekend of workshops on organizing, collective bargaining, legislative advocacy, academic freedom, and other issues affecting faculty with part-time or full-time temporary appointments.

I moderated a workshop that focused on building a united front of tenure system faculty and contingent faculty, and our members agreed that unity was the way to go. "It's all about relationships," said Paul Fisher, president of the Oregon Education Association Community College Council.

Kerensa Peterson, the new president of the Illinois Education Association’s City Colleges of Chicago Contingent Labor Organizing Committee, recounted the story of her union’s efforts to achieve a united front with the full-time faculty unit, including during that unit’s recent strike.

Participants argued for job security and pay equity for contingent faculty, but there was healthy debate on how to reach those goals. Two of the questions debated: Should contingent academic labor be abolished, or should the concentration be on winning equity for contingent work? Should tenure system and contingent faculty be in the same bargaining units?

The next biennial COCAL conference will be in 2008. Planning is already underway for Campus Equity Week, the major COCAL activity for 2007. NEA provides financial support to our higher ed affiliates for Campus Equity Week, and we provide funding for the COCAL conference.

— Valerie Wilk coordinates NEA higher ed activities.