Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews and analysis of relevant primary documents, this article explores the 1996 unionization of full-time academic faculty at Brock University, a public and primarily undergraduate university in southern Ontario, Canada. The case study examines both the impetus for unionization and the strategies employed by the faculty association in support of certification with a view to demonstrating how discourses of professionalism and collegiality can be challenged, subverted, and redeployed by academics intent on organizing, mobilizing, and ultimately winning support for unionization.
AdellB.CarterD.1972. Collective bargaining for university faculty in Canada: A study commissioned by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Kingston, Canada: Industrial Relations Centre, Queen’s University.
2.
ArnoldG.1998. The emergence of faculty unions at flagship public universities in southern New England. Labor Studies Journal22:62–87.
3.
AronowitzS.2003. Are unions good for professors? In Unionization in the academy: Visions and realities, ed. DeCewJ., 173–84. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
4.
AxelrodP.2008. Public policy in Ontario higher education: From Frost to Harris. In The exchange university: Corporatization of academic culture, ed. ChanA.FisherD., 90–104. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press.
5.
BadigannavarV.KellyJ.2005. Why are some union organizing campaigns more successful than others?British Journal of Industrial Relations43:515–35.
6.
BelickiKathy. 1996. On collegiality. BUFA Forum, April/May.
7.
BenderD.KinkelaD.2001. Thirty years of Academic labor: The language of antiunionism. Radical History Review79:7–13.
8.
BenthamK.2002. Employer resistance to union certification. Relations Industrielles57:159–87.
9.
BessJ.1988. Collegiality and bureaucracy in the modern university: The influence of information and power on decision-making structures. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
10.
Brock University Faculty Association (BUFA). 1996. Why certify? April. St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada: BUFA.
11.
Brock University Faculty Association (BUFA). n.d.-a. Ad hoc committee report. St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada: BUFA.
12.
Brock University Faculty Association (BUFA). n.d.-b. FAB 40 and growing. . . . St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada: BUFA.
13.
Brock University Faculty Association (BUFA). n.d.-c. Issues for committee. St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada: BUFA.
14.
BrownW.2003. Academic politics: Faculty unions and the academic perception. In Unionization in the academy: Visions and realities, ed. DeCewJ., 139–65. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
ChengM.2009. Academics’ professionalism and quality mechanisms: Challenges and tensions. Quality in Higher Education15:193–205.
21.
DeCewJ.2003. Unionization in the academy: Visions and realities. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Litlefield.
22.
DevinatzV.2001. Unions, faculty, and the culture of competition. Thought and Action17:87–98.
23.
DevinatzV.2003. Reflections of a rank-and-file faculty union organizer at a public university. Journal of Collective Negotiations30:209–21.
24.
DixonM.TopeD.Van DykeN.2008. “The university works because we do”: On the determinants of campus labor organizing in the 1990s. Sociological Perspectives51:375–96.
25.
DobbieD.RobinsonI.2008. Reorganizing higher education in the United States and Canada: The erosion of tenure and the unionization of contingent faculty. Labor Studies Journal33:117–40.
26.
EvettsJ.2006. The sociology of professional groups. Current Sociology54:133–43.
27.
FendrichJ.1977. Unions help faculty who help themselves: A partisan view of a collective bargaining campaign. The American Sociologist12:162–75.
28.
FioritoJ.GallagherV. C.2006. Renewal in the United Faculty of Florida: Class war in paradise?Labor Studies Journal31:39–64.
29.
FoggP.2006. Young Ph.D.’s say collegiality matters more than salary. Chronicle of Higher Education53:1.
30.
FreidsonE.2001. Professionalism: The third logic. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
GoldeyG.SwankE.HardestyC.SwainR.2010. Union professors: Framing processes, mobilizing structures, and participation in faculty unions. Sociological Inquiry80:331–53.
33.
GoodDawn. 1996a. Certification. Memo to all members of the potential bargaining unit of BUFA. October29. n.p.
GuilmetteAnn Marie. 1996. An alternative interpretation in favour of certification. Ca. November. n.p.
37.
HardyC.1996. Politics of collegiality: Retrenchment strategies in Canadian universities. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
38.
HatfieldR.2006. Collegiality in higher education: Toward an understanding of the factors involved in collegiality. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict10:11–19.
39.
HedrickD.HensonS.KriegJ.WassellC.2011. Is there really a faculty union salary premium?Industrial and Labor Relations Review64:558–75.
40.
HolsingerN.2008. “Union Yes” at a public ivy: Predictors of faculty voting intentions at the University of Vermont. Labor Studies Journal33:288–308.
KamensD.SarupG.1978. Reward systems, faculty alienation, and militancy: Academic dilemmas in the middle of the academic procession. Research in Higher Education8: 243–59.
43.
LeeceHarold. 1996a. Email to Dawn Good, “Certification ballot,”April8.
44.
LeeceHarold. 1996b. Faculty association certification. April4. n.p.
45.
MangerT.EikelandO.1990. Factors predicting staff’s intentions to leave the university. Higher Education19:281–91.
46.
MartinelloF.2009. Faculty salaries in Ontario: Compression, inversion, and the effects of alternative forms of representation. Industrial and Labor Relations Review63:128–45.
47.
MayA.MoorhouseE.BossardJ.2010. Representation of women faculty at public research universities: Do unions matter?Industrial and Labor Relations Review63:699–718.
48.
NelsonC.2010. No university is an island: Saving academic freedom. New York: New York University Press.
49.
NewsonJ.BuchbinderH.1998. The university means business. Toronto, Canada: Garamond.
50.
PascaleR. T.1990. The renewal factor: Constructive contention. The Planning Forum17:4–13.
51.
PatriasCarmelaSavageLarry2012. Union power: Solidarity and struggle in Niagara. Edmonton, Canada: Athabasca University Press.
52.
RastinS.2000. Organizing tactics in a faculty unionization drive at a Canadian university. Labor Studies Journal, Summer, 99–119.
53.
TrowerC.GallagherA.2008. Why collegiality matters. Chronicle of Higher Education55:A50–A51.
54.
WebbS.WebbB.1917. Professional associations. New Statesman9 (special supplement):7–19.
55.
WestheimerJ.2002. Tenure denied: Anti-unionism and anti-intellectualism in the academy. Social Text: A Journal of Cultural and Political Analysis73:1–16.
56.
WilliamsK.2008. Troubling the concept of the “academic profession” in 21st century higher education. Higher Education56:533–44.
