By Dr. Isabel Fearon, Vice-President, SMU Part-Time Faculty
October 2026 marked the one-year anniversary of a significant turning point. The strike of contract academics in 2025 was a first: a first for Saint Mary’s University, for our Local, and for me and many of the people I stood with on the picket line. During the whirlwind three weeks of picketing, I learned new skills, met new colleagues, made new friends, and started thinking about some things in a very different way. It was alternately exhausting, exhilarating, awkward, confounding, frustrating, chaotic, and inspiring.
Before that experience, answering “yes” on a strike vote did not come easy for me. There were many conflicting values, loyalties, and priorities to weigh. I didn’t see myself as a “union person.” I felt guilty about the potential impact on students and colleagues. I second-guessed — and triple-guessed — my answer on an almost daily basis.
Since that experience, I have not regretted my vote or my time on the picket line even once. As a result of that strike, we saw the university agree to meaningful changes to our Collective Agreement that they would not have agreed to otherwise: significant wage increases, more protection from unfair dismissal, better support for our ongoing professional development, and an agreement from the University to discuss timelines for posting jobs and issuing contracts.
So, no, I haven’t changed my mind about the strike. I have, however, learned a lot of things I didn’t know when we left the picket line and went back to the classroom. The most important of these is that getting a new Collective Agreement is the start of the work, not its culmination.
You may now be thinking: Wait, what? I thought once the strike was over, we could all just celebrate and relax for a couple of years! Certainly, this is what I was hoping in November 2025. But it has become increasingly obvious to me that a Collective Agreement does not magically turn into action and cooperation on the part of the University. It takes vigilance, advocacy, action, and teamwork to turn the words on the page into actual change.
For example, over this past year at SMU:
- More than 15% of jobs posted for the fall term contravened the Collective Agreement in some way. The University had no plan to address this pattern until the Union collected the information, presented it to the Administration, and filed grievances on the basis of that information.
- The University made no progress on its written promise to our members to discuss the timing of job postings and contracts until the Union moved the issue forward.
- The instructors for roughly 25% of courses received their contracts after September 1, the start of the contractual period, and many received them less than 24 hours before the official start of term. This, in turn, meant we were left dealing with delayed pay, personal upheaval, problems getting parking passes, and lack of access to necessary tools like Banner, Brightspace, and CrowdMark.
So, what have I learned since the strike? Winning new language in our Collective Agreement is hugely important and worth striking for, if it can make meaningful change in people’s lives. But it is not enough. Equally important is the work we do together, between contract negotiations, to hold the University accountable to its promises.
Sometimes this means the legalistic work of filing grievances and formal contract negotiations. But it also involves more mundane and equally crucial tasks: tracking data on job postings and contracts; keeping members connected and informed about what’s going on; supporting fellow members in speaking up for themselves and in reaching out for help when needed; listening to others about what is important to them; and ongoing advocacy on behalf of our members with the Employer and with other unions.
I see my current role as VP as involving aspects of all these tasks. But I also know the work requires a TEAM, not just one individual. The Steward, Executive, and Union Officers all play crucial roles, but there is no doubt that the most important part of our team is our members — including you.
Our members support each other, and the Union, by keeping their Union reps informed of what is happening in their departments and faculties; by participating in Union meetings; by staying informed themselves and making their votes meaningful; by helping organize events; by sharing their thoughts and ideas in newsletters like this one; by sharing their concerns and perspectives with elected officials; and in so many other ways, big and small.
Which brings me full circle to the lesson I first really understood on the picket line a year ago: we are all the Union, and together we are stronger.
Dr. Fearon teaches in the Department of Psychology at Saint Mary’s University and serves as CUPE 3912’s VP representing Part-Time Faculty at SMU.