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[spinnaker]

How would any organizer reach adjuncts to tell them there was a meeting? This is a huge urban area, so an itty bitty ad in the newspaper isn't likely to grab much attention. Forget flyers or posters on campus. They would be confiscated immediately.

May be illegal:   http://www.nlrb.gov/faq

[monsterx]

How would any organizer reach adjuncts to tell them there was a meeting? This is a huge urban area, so an itty bitty ad in the newspaper isn't likely to grab much attention. Forget flyers or posters on campus. They would be confiscated immediately.

May be illegal:   http://www.nlrb.gov/faq

Whether it is illegal or not is hardly relevant.  The administration is likely to do it anyways, if they feel an organizing drive might be taking off, and confiscating the posters might slow it down; if you're involved in such a situation, documenting it can be useful, as a record of unfair labor practices can be a bargaining chip later on when negotiating various things during an organizing drive.   As to how to reach adjuncts, you have to be creative - course schedules and word of mouth probably. It might also be possible to get department adjunct lists from sympathetic administrators and faculty.  It could be a bit tricky knowing how large the bargaining unit will be, to be sure you've got enough cards signed. 

Forming a committee means locating a core of activists willing to do really tough work, and to risk losing their jobs (also illegal, but also a common tactic).  The only way to do that is one-by-one; you don’t start with a big meeting – you start with a small meeting of a few people you know and trust and ask them to help you locate these activists through their own contacts (not all, or maybe not any, of your initial group will be the ones to actually be on the committee in the end, as it takes a certain kind of committed person to persist). If you contact a union, they might be able to send an organizer to help with the work, but they can only do a small bit, and help with the strategy development, perhaps provide some resources, but most of the work has to come from the committee.  It is hard, tedious work, and many of the people you want to help will not appreciate it, so this is why most people in the US don’t have union representation, although any rational person with full knowledge of the implications would want it if given the choice.   

[mrsodetts]

Thanks for that info. I hope some of my old colleagues see this and take action. Having left academia (mentally and physically) with no intention of getting myself into such an awful situation again, I hope those that still have the fire in the belly to both teach and work to change the system will take heed.

[spinnaker]

Also I think full time professors don't realize that adjuncts who are now quite disgruntled would be much happier if things improved only a little.

...and I think some adjuncts don't realize that full time professors have little or no power to make those improvements.  You are targeting the wrong audience, we do not have the salvation that you seek.

Any full time professor who lends support to an adjunct union drive in whatever way he is able should know that it will be appreciated.

[greenleaf]

I once taught at a community college that had a union for adjuncts. They had an agreement that when a tenure track position came up in a given department, qualified adjuncts would get the opportunity to interview for the position. When one came up in my department I applied. I had better qualifications than the person they eventually hired. They invited none of their adjuncts to interview. This is the only C.C. position I have applied to that I was not invited to at least the first round of interviews. I have been a finalist numerous times for similar jobs. I pointed out to HR, the dean and the department chair that no adjuncts had been interviewed. On the last day of the semester the department chair sent me a note that I had been replaced by their new full time hire in the classes I had been teaching for the following semester. When I contacted the union representative, he said the same thing had happened to him, TT search in his department, no adjuncts interviewed, and when he brought it up he found he found that no longer taught at the institution. The people remaining in the union needed the paycheck too much to stick their necks out and protest.

[jdougher]

I cannot imagine any realistic set of events or reforms that will improve the current treatment of adjuncts. The only way to escape the exploitation is to leave and find a full time job doing something else.

I have to agree with this. Even if I were willing to take an adjunct job under the wages currently paid--because I had free time and wanted to get back into the classroom, because I wanted to stay active academically, because I wanted to pad my resume with some recent teaching experience, or for any other reason--I would feel guilty for doing so because I would know that my presence in the current adjunct system would be helping to perpetuate a disgraceful system.