CAUT | ACPPU
Canadian Association of University Teachers
Issues & Campaigns
Contract Academic Staff Conference
May 30, 2009 – University of Ottawa
CAUT is pleased to announce our upcoming Contract Academic Staff (CAS) conference, “Making Gains at the Table: Bargaining toward a Pro-Rata Model”. The conference will take place at the University of Ottawa on May 30, 2009.
This will be the fourth CAUT-sponsored CAS conference, following successful conferences in London, Toronto and Edmonton. The conferences provide a unique opportunity for CAS members, academic staff association leaders and members of negotiating teams to discuss and analyze key collective bargaining issues affecting contract academic staff.
Most contract academic staff are hired on a per-course basis. As stipendiary employees, their research and service efforts are unrecognized and unremunerated. This separation of one part of the academic job and failure to recognize the other two parts undermine the concept of academic work which involves both the pursuit of knowledge and its dissemination through teaching, publication, and other professional activities. Teaching, research and service are not separate and distinct functions. Rather, they are three essential elements of a single academic job. For this reason, CAUT has promoted the concept of the “pro-rata model” in its policy and model clauses on per-course appointments.
Our CAS conference will explore the challenges academic staff associations face in dealing with the pro-rata model to the bargaining table, and look at the progress made thus far. Participants will have opportunities to engage each other in breakout groups on current issues in CAS bargaining. Plenary sessions will examine successes in grievance and arbitration for CAS and will examine the casualization of the academy in North America.
Please promote this important event among your members, and consider sending representatives from your association. The conference will be conducted in English. There will not be simultaneous translation.
Attached please find registration information and the agenda. We highly recommend that accommodations be booked as soon as possible. In the interest of keeping costs to participants as low as possible, CAUT has reserved space on campus. The registration form is attached. For additional information on the city of Ottawa, please click here.
If you have any questions about the conference, please contact us.
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