COCAL IV

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONTINGENT ACADEMIC LABOR
January 12-14, 2001
San José City College, San Jose California

Gary Zabel, Boston Panelist: Contingent Academic Labor: State of the Profession Gary Zabel's first experience of contingent academic labor organizing occurred during the historic and successful BU strike of 1979, where he was coordinator of grad TA participation on the picket line. After receiving his doctorate in Philosophy from BU in 1987, he got a job as an adjunct professor at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University, where he helped lead a part-timer rebellion against the full-time faculty leadership of the AFT local concerning a contract ratification vote. In 1997, Gary was back in Boston teaching as a part-timer at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where he helped initiate a successful battle for full medical, pension, and dental benefits as well as a floor of $4000 per course for part-timers teaching 2 courses per term. Gary was an organizer of the 3rd COCAL conference in 1999, and was involved in founding COCAL's Boston chapter, where he is now co-chair. Gary is on the Executive Committee of UMass Boston's Faculty Staff Union / MTA / NEA, on the Board of Directors of Campaign on Contingent Work, and a member of the Coordinating Committee of the National Alliance for Fair Employment. His articles on contingent faculty organizing have appeared in Labor Notes, New Labor Forum, Industrial Worker, Dollars and Sense, Workplace, and Tsunami.

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