The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), a union representing 55,000 professional public service employees (mostly federal; some provincial employees), is seeking a doctoral candidate / post-doctoral fellow / tenure track assistant professor with a demonstrated interest in labour history to research and write the history of PIPSC since 1967 in preparation to celebrate its centennial (February 6, 2020).
Resources:
- full “carte blanche” access to PIPSC archives
- access to long-time active members and senior staff
Compensation: to be negotiated
For inquiries or expressions of interest: please contact Laureen Allan, Communications Officer, PIPSC at [email protected]
Background
The Professional Institute is a certified bargaining agent representing knowledge-based professionals employed in the public sector. The moniker “labour union” applies to organizations which seek to define and defend their members’ employment rights and pursue related interests. These objectives are undertaken within the framework of prevailing labour laws governing the right to collective bargaining and the internal governance structure applicable to each union. By virtue of this description, the Institute is unquestionably a labour union but by no means is it a typical labour union.
The Institute occupies a niche in the spectrum of Canadian labour unions. Since its founding, the organization has remained the domain of knowledge-based professionals, people who are trained to think critically, act independently and who are frequently subject to rigorous professional standards and codes of ethics. By virtue of their vocation Institute members are on the vanguard of change, innovating and promoting technological change and new approaches and ideas affecting work. Consequently, Institute members embrace a culture which may appear at odds with the notion of solidarity of thought and action traditionally associated with labour unions. Reconciling labour goals with professional values is a continuing reality of the Institute.
Founded as an association of like-minded professionals in 1920, the Institute has at times survived but more often flourished over a period now approaching a centenary. Longevity has meant existence some 47 years before becoming a certified bargaining agent in 1967. Attaining the legal right to operate as a certified bargaining agent required the Institute to reinvent itself. The process of changing from a voluntary staff association to the legal entity of a bargaining agent proved long and challenging.
