manager's job

   Whether or not unions have a role to play in universities has long been

 

debated, with views ranging from philosophical antipathy to wholesale

 

endorsement. In some jurisdictions, levels of union membership and

 

support have also varied in response to external and internal factors such

 

as the centralization of power and decision making. An emerging "threat"

 

that is garnering increasing levels of concern is that of automation in the

 

higher education sphere. This development will have fundamental

 

implications for higher education, as for other service industries. It poses

 

essential challenges for employee unions in terms of their relevance,

 

governance, and leadership. This review and commentary will focus on

 

the Australian context but will be grounded in political economy,

 

reflecting the tensions between public and private funders and those who

 

see universities as institutions.

​

    There is a traditional perception of universities as being the bastion of

 

"jobs for life". Such perceptions are no longer grounded. Most universities

 

are faced with a multiplicity of challenges and demands that they be

 

flexible, responsive, and relevant. The paper examines the role and

 

profile of employee unions in the university sector, particularly in relation

 

to how their role and power are affected by shifts in law, power relations

 

and perceptions. It also examines the import of the specific challenge of

 

automation for universities in general and staff.

​

   Technology is invading all areas of the economy and society, even those

 

perhaps considered immune. Tertiary education is an area focused on

 

disseminating knowledge and skills. Massive Open Online Courses

 

(MOOCs) appeared on the tertiary education scene in 2008 with the first

 

for-credit course at the University of Manitoba. There has been an

 

expansion in the use and application of alternative media to deliver

 

educational programs. By 2012, 10% of higher education students in the

 

U.S. were taking courses online with 13.3% involved in blended courses,

 

according to IFC's latest figures.

​

   In many jurisdictions, including Australia, universities wrestle with the

 

shifting and potentially conflicting demands of multiple stakeholders –

 

each seeking to hold universities accountable in different ways. The

 

rhetoric, the message, delivered by these various stakeholders may more

 

accurately be seen as aligning with and feeding the biases of the

 

audience. Governments exercise power via funding models, regulatory

 

structures, and an increased emphasis on competitive forces. For

 

example, the latest Australian budget provides for an "efficiency-related

 

claw-back" of teaching-related grant money plus prescribed increases in

 

student fees.

​

   The role and position of employee unions in the tertiary (university)

 

sector is under discussion. How have the changes and characteristics of

 

the broader environment shaped and affected the power such unions

 

have? In an age of expanding and deeper technology pervading the

 

space, how can unions provide leadership? The power and influence of

 

unions in the tertiary sector has been affected. Deregulation has been

 

identified as the major factor in the decline. The Australian NTEU boasted

 

a nation-wide membership of 28,000 plus from a total workforce of

 

around 160,000.

​

​

   The role of unions in the tertiary sector is shaped by two key factors.

 

First, there is a suspicion of the role or even place of the union as a

 

vehicle for industrial action or radical activity. The traditional notion of the

 

university is being challenged by increasing expectations that universities

 

operate like businesses. The higher education sector is increasingly

 

competition-driven, seeking advantage in existing markets and share in

 

new ones. Academic work is more likely to be unstable, ever-changing,

 

and less central to university discourse. MOOCs are increasingly

 

important in their capacity to expose tensions between the various

 

interests and stakeholders in higher education. Much of this can be

 

ascribed to changes in capital markets (or weaknesses) involving

 

overproduction and a decline in profits, leading to stagnation in incomes

 

and an expansion in precarious labor.

​

   The permanent education workforce may be highly unionized, but one

 

major impact of technology on universities is casualization and/or

 

contract-based staffing. The higher the degree of precariousness of

 

employment, the lower the level of union membership. This can be

 

ascribed to uncertainty of income, lack of power over the negotiation

 

process and personal and career profile. unsecure work is increasingly

 

becoming a norm and an area of on-going concern for employees. Job

 

specialization and isolation will increase, both bad news for unions that

 

rely on collegiality. Unions need to look to maintain virtual collegial

 

networks through which members can connect, articulate, and solve

 

common challenges.

 

 

​

Work Cited

Wells, Philippa, and Coral Ingley. “Unions in Higher Education-Leadership in the Era of Automation.” Proceedings of the International Conference on Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management & Organizational Learning, Jan. 2017, pp. 513–520. EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=bth&AN=126894494&site=bsi-live.