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About the Author
Marc Bousquet is an associate professor of cultural studies and writing with new media at Santa Clara University. His book How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation has just been released by New York University Press with a foreword by Cary Nelson. He serves on the national council of the American Association of University Professors and was the founding editor of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor.
About Brainstorm
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Marc Bousquet
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Recent Posts
The Churchill Case Goes to Trial | Comment [44]
The AAUP and Ward Churchill | Comment [16]
AP Profile of Cary Nelson | Comment [29]
5,000 Postdocs Choose UAW | Comment
Major Corporations Whine About Market | Comment
Job Security for Part-Time Faculty
crossposted from howtheuniversityworks.com
In recent years, faculty serving contingently have rung up a series of important successes through unionization, often raising salaries substantially. They’ve also begun to bargain for job security. At some public institutions, notably Cal State, faculty have a contractual pathway to renewable appointments. At private schools, the UAW contract with the New School guarantees not only elements of job security, but contributions toward health care, family leave, and retirement.
Now a recently formed AFT affiliate, the 900-member Union of Part-Time Faculty at Wayne State, has made job security the centerpiece of its bargaining. Like workers in every other industry, they believe that working part-time does not deprive faculty of the protections of seniority and continuing appointment.
Organizers feel that the bargaining has reached an impasse and would welcome your emails of support.
In recent weeks, the Union of Part-Time Faculty at Wayne State University has reached a critical juncture in our negotiations for our first contract that began in November 2007. The WSU administration has said “no” to job-security for our members, even those with many years of service to the university. Rather than recognizing longevity as a contractual basis for future employment, the administration has proposed a vague concept: “first consideration.” As a replacement for the simple and democratic principle of seniority, first consideration is both inadequate and ill-defined. The UPTF has informed the administration that it will not accept a contract without serious job security provisions. The union is also dismayed by Wayne State’s attempt to maintain 15 separate wage scales for instructors doing the same work. To support the union’s proposals, contact WSU President Irvin Reid[president@wayne.edu] and tell him that you support the fundamental right of job security and equal pay scales for UPTF members… Please cc it to: uptf@aftmichigan.org.
For more information see the webpage of the UPTF Union Council
Posted at 02:06:45 PM on April 1, 2008 | All postings by Marc BousquetComments
Commenting is closed for this article.
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Hey Marc!
How are you? We profiled the Prez. of the new Wayne State union in the Adjunct Advocate. She is an amazing firebrand, and I have no doubt the union wants to provide job security to the part-timers. Just an observation and I would be interested to hear what you think about it.
Looking at unions such as CFA, which you mentioned, and the PSUFA, and one does see movement toward job security. For both of these unions, it was only after decades of representation that the unions went after job security seriously and with any modicum of success.
Here’s what I’m wondering: Wayne State’s part-timers have chosen to go after job security right off the bat, and maybe this isn’t the best strategy, particularly because at Wayne State (unlike in the CSU system or at the University of Michigan, which recently added a form of job security to its most recent contract) there are primarily part-time faculty and not full-time lecturers. I think Wayne State officials would gladly double the per course pay rather than have to promise job security the first year of seeing how things with the union are going to shake out.
I would just hate to see Susan Titus and her union get into an impasse over the first contract, such as the one at Pace University and GW. Certainly emails to Irvin Reid will send the important message of support (I sent one), but rather than get nothing for four years (like at Pace), why not move quickly to agreement for the first contract, keep it short, gather data on seniority programs around the country, information, etc…and then tackle seniority in the second contract?
— P.D. Lesko · Apr 2, 08:07 AM · #
These are all good strategy points, P.D., of the sort that every local has to make on its own.
From my position as an observer, though, I have to say that the “get the first contract” strategy often turns into a disappointment. That first contract really does set the bar for the next round, and it seems—in many cases—more difficult to do something new/dramatic/important in a second contract, as opposed to a first.
In any event, I’m really glad to see the PTFU’s choice here. In the big picture, I think workplace due process and security are the core demands. And—given other developments, and a growing national recognition of permatemping, this might be the moment.
— Marc Bousquet · Apr 2, 10:50 AM · #