Not really. I think there are three different kinds of contract academic staff that we want to talk about. There are people who are hired to replace someone who's on a sabbatical. It's a temporary thing, and they know it's a temporary business. There are also professionals, such as architects or lawyers or doctors, who teach a course once in a while as part of their professional commitments. The big bulk of contract academic staff are hired to essentially do the heavy lifting of teaching within a university. In most cases, in most of our member associations, both the full-time and the contract staff are members of the same bargaining unit and negotiate the same terms and conditions of employment.
