“The principal issue is respect. We feel that our teaching duties are the same as the permanent faculty’s, and yet we are treated differently,” said Colman Hogan, spokesperson for CUPE Local 3902 Unit 3, after his sixth bargaining session with U of T administrators.

Local 3902 Unit 3 represents 700 contract lecturers, usually known as “sessionals,” at U of T (outside of Victoria College). On November 23, the union began negotiating its first collective agreement since unionizing U of T’s sessional instructors in August 2004.

“What we need is a good workable collective agreement for our future relationship with CUPE,” said Angela Hildyard, U of T’s Vice President for Human Resources and Equity. The collective agreement currently in negotiation will set out guidelines on which each sessional instructor’s contract will be based. Sessionals hold PhDs and are hired to teach courses on a contract basis.

One of CUPE’s main concerns is job security.

“In at least three departments, and there may be more-the Department of English, the Department of Philosophy, and seemingly the Department of Religion-you are terminated after three years, without cause. There are exceptions, but they are very small,” said Hogan

“I find that information surprising,” said Hildyard in response. “It is certainly not information that I have.”

CUPE is also concerned about the wages and benefits received by sessionals. Contract lecturers at York University, Hogan said, are paid 25 per cent more than their counterparts at U of T.

“A graduate student instructor and a sessional could be teaching two sections of the same course [at U of T],” Hogan said. “The graduate student instructor gets paid more in salary and benefits than the sessional instructor.” Three-quarters of the members of Unit 3 are not entitled to benefits, he said.

Use of contract lecturers has been on the rise since the 1990s. As professors retire, their teaching load is increasingly being passed on to sessionals, who are not tenured and are paid less. Hogan is quick to point out the impact that sessionals have on students.

“Our working conditions are your learning conditions,” he said.

U of T’s latest planning document, Stepping Up, lays out both research and teaching as major priorities, but Hogan is skeptical.

“In principle, they’re talking about it, but nothing is happening,” he said.

Neither side would estimate how long negotiations will continue. But after six weeks, it seems that there are still major issues to be worked out.

“It’s not unusual for a first collective agreement to take a little time,” said Hildyard.