The Support Network for Academics and Students of Colour + Allies (SNAC+) stands in solidarity
with the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association (ULFA). At SNAC+ we recognize that
labour issues are equity issues. Like other forms of labour, academic labour is gendered,
racialized, and structured around normative, non-reproductive, non-disabled bodies, and
neuro-typical minds. We believe that the working conditions of professors, instructors and
teachers are the learning conditions of students. If marginalized workers cannot have fair
working conditions, marginalized students will not have fair learning conditions. ULFA members
deserve fair working conditions. Students deserve faculty members with fair workloads, and
both the classroom support and working conditions to do their best work.
Faculty at the University of Lethbridge have seen their course enrolments double in the last five
years without any commensurate teaching or classroom support and without commensurate
pay raises. Sessional instructors and term instructors at the University of Lethbridge have had
increased workloads without increased pay, without classroom support, and they receive some
of the lowest wages across the sector in Canada. Faculty members who are paid less than the
national average of faculty at their rank and level are overwhelmingly members of historically
disadvantaged groups, including women, LGBTQ faculty, racialized faculty, Indigenous faculty,
and faculty with disabilities. On top of already facing gross pay inequity, they had the threat of
an illegal, retroactive, wage cut thrown at them in the middle of a global pandemic. In some
cases, students have had to take extra years to complete programs because faculty attrition has
not been met with new hires at competitive wages. Small departments that teach courses in
equity, diversity, discrimination, and violence against racialized and other marginalized groups,
such as Women and Gender Studies, have been among the hardest hit.
We stand in solidarity with ULFA because labour issues are equity issues. Labour justice is racial
justice; labour justice is disability justice; labour justice is gender justice. It has been over 600
days that ULFA has not had a contract due to delays created by the employer. We stand in
solidarity with ULFA to negotiate a fair, and equitable contract for all.
[Original document is here.]
