Negotiating Technology: Support Personnel in Higher Education

Gary Rhoades and Christine Maitland


DOI: 10.2190/8CP3-TXBC-M37N-31CU

Abstract

This article examines 186 collective bargaining agreements for educational support personnel in colleges and universities. The analytical focus is on issues surrounding technology. We examined provisions regarding work-place conditions, workforce protection, workplace change, and work product ownership. For each type of provision we explored the extent to which: there are provisions; provisions speak to the workforce as well as to current bargaining unit members; and provisions afford employees a measure of involvement in the issues at hand. We found relatively limited provisions, with well less than half of the contracts having provisions regarding the four issues surrounding technology. At the same time, we found some useful examples of contractual language that speaks in important ways to emerging issues that should be negotiated by educational support personnel units.

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