Dear colleagues,
Brian Green recently informed us that a drive to certify SFUFA as a union has officially begun. At the risk of getting deleted, I would like to state briefly why I am opposed to this initiative, in case my reasons resonate with any of you.
First of all (and contrary to some statements made by Neil Abramson, and others), my opposition to unionization has nothing to do with a supposed "special relationship" with the administration, much less with an idea that professors are anything other than "workers." Actually, it seems to me precisely the pro-union side that holds these sorts of views: believing, apparently, that if the administration treats us merely as employees in a business--and that if non-academic managers in the admin don't understand how very special we are--we should all be shocked, shocked. Not me. I have no problem with seeing SFU as an enterprise in the higher education business, or with seeing myself as a worker in that business, performing tasks that do not necessarily demand the world's attention.
Neither do I oppose unionization because, on some kind of class basis, I "just don't want to be in a union." Again, I would turn that one around. It seems to me that a number of colleagues who have expressed passionate support for certification just DO want to be in a union. There is a lot of bad conscience on the academic left. Association with the trade union movement is a way to assuage it.
I oppose unionization because I don't want to be told what to do. Or, if you like: Because I don't want to create a whole new force at SFU that can tell me, and others, what to do. I have two main concerns:
(1) We have heard a lot about making workload an issue for collective bargaining. But to bargain over workload, you must first define workload. At present, this varies widely, not only among departments, but also within them. Individual faculty members, within broad parameters, put more or less work into different areas of their job, at various career points, in response to various factors. Workload comes under judgment. I like that professional freedom and responsibility. I don't want to lose it.
(2) We are on a campus of a number of other unions (CUPE, TSSU, etc.). Sometimes, these go on strike. They may be in the right; they may not. I don't want to be told by my union what to think of a given strike, or ordered not to cross a picket line. This, of course, is exactly the kind of liberal nostrum that people in the trade union movement love to hate--which is why they are quite comfortable with imposing sanctions, from shaming to fines, on recalcitrant members (TSSU does this, for example). No thank you.
Finally: A persistent argument for unionization has been: "Everybody's doing it." On that basis, I would say: "So let's not." Ways to set SFU apart from the academic crowd, I would argue, are more valuable than ways to redistribute another percentage point or two at the bargaining table.
Sincerely,
JD Fleming
--
James Dougal Fleming
Associate Professor
Department of English
Simon Fraser University
778-782-4713
"Upstairs was a room for travelers. ‘You know, I shall take it for the rest of my life,’ Vasili Ivanovich is reported to have said as soon as he had entered it."
-- Vladimir Nabokov, Cloud, Castle, Lake