Precarious work – a livelihood that is hanging on by a thin thread – is the work life an increasing number of university employees face across Canada, including at the University of Guelph, according to Canadian Union of Public Employee officials on campus.
CUPE is hosting a town hall meeting in the city next Wednesday, March 1 on the subject of precarious work, with a focus on post-secondary work environments, said Janice Folk-Dawson, president of CUPE Local 1334 at U of G, and Laura Maclure, chief steward of Local 1334.
“Precarious work is part-time work with no job security, temporary work where you have to apply for your job every three months,” said Maclure. “We have academic workers and that is their life.”
Those who teach, serve food, clean and maintain university and college campuses, or workers who take care of clerical and support services at universities and colleges, all face precarious work situations, Maclure and Folk-Dawson indicated.
That reality is personally and professionally very hard on workers. And while those workers are committed to doing a good job, they need and deserve fair and decent working conditions in order to do the best job they can. Without those conditions, workers are hurt, and education suffers.
The Precarious Work Town Hall happens next Wednesday night, starting at 7 p.m., at the Italian Canadian Club. It is part of CUPE’s national campaign Quality Jobs, Quality Education, Better Futures, an effort to raise awareness of the impact that precarious work has on post-secondary education in this country. Folk-Dawson said there are seven town halls happening across the country.
The impression many have of university or college jobs is that they involve “gold-plated jobs and gold-plated pensions,” Folk-Dawson said. It’s not true. Some library workers on campus make under $15 per hour, she said.
“The rise of precarious work in post-secondary is huge,” she said. “We have seven-year temps. We are hearing new terms like ‘permanent temps’ being used. That whole culture is moving towards the casualization of work. It’s the impact that’s happening on the quality of education and the student experience that we really think needs to be addressed.”
The root of the problem can be traced back to government policies and funding priorities. To save money, the government is deliberately creating a precarious work environment on campuses, Folk-Dawson added.
Chronic underfunding of post-secondary education, she added, has lead to a situation in which much of the teaching load is being done by part-time, sessional instructors.
“It’s being driven by government policies, and their wanting to spend the money where they want to spend it, not where it actually improves the quality of education,” Folk-Dawson said.
The town hall meeting will hear from those affected by the current work situation, as well as taking steps to put a strategy in place to make sure communities understand what is happening on campuses.
