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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
Laurie Fendrich
Dan Greenberg
John L. Jackson Jr.
Stan Katz
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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
More Contingent Faculty Win Job Security
crossposted from howtheuniversityworks.com
About six weeks ago, I reported on the decision by the Union of Part-Time Faculty to make job security the core demand of their first contract negotiation at Wayne State, where graduate employees and faculty serving on a full-time basis are already unionized.
In the tentative agreement reached between the administration and UPTF-AFT, the faculty forced the administration to accept job security after six consecutive semesters (to one-year renewable contracts with seniority protections) and, after six more terms, two-year renewable contracts with seniority protections. Salaries were raised to a minimum of $700/credit hour (from a current low of $582), with a floor of $1,000/credit hour in the most secure tier. Above these minimums are 15 salary levels to avoid wage compression.
They did not press on health insurance and the percentage raises in this four-year first contract are modest (2 percent + $75/credit hour in the first year, then 2.5 percent a year for the succeeding years).
But the union delivered on its controversial (to some) core strategy of zeroing in on job security, reflecting the reality that most faculty serving part-time are in this to make their living (despite most administrative propaganda to the contrary). There is specific language in the agreement guaranteeing continuing employment after six terms — so long as “faculty are available to perform the duties that they have previously regularly performed, and there is no reduction of available work … they will be reappointed at that same level of employment as in the previous academic years,” except in the case of demonstrable poor performance or a substantial loss in the availability of work.
The UPTF-AFT contract continues a trend toward bargaining contingency out of existence established in the Cal State and New School/NYU (UAW) campaigns. Next post, I hope to follow up on events at McGill.
Posted at 08:02:28 PM on May 12, 2008 | All postings by Marc BousquetComments
Commenting is closed for this article.
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I believe the “six consecutive terms and then a modicum of security” structure is also in place in SUNY – any of whose adjuncts teaching two or more courses in a term also receive health insurance.
But it’s too soon to be sure of the Wayne State celebration. The tactic used at SUNY campuses, I’m told, is to watch for that sixth term looming on the horizon and to suddenly not need an adjunct’s services for one term. Then, s/he can be hired back and the clock starts all over again.
This sort of security will likely be granted to a very few — who will then become the elite among adjuncts: the perpetually-renewed but never on the tenure-track contingent faculty. Still firable almost at will in most institutions, despite having a contract. In SUNY, the post-six term part-time adjuncts are due “notice” when fired; the contingent full-timers aren’t even due that.
Under the circumstances, I’d feel a lot better if I heard the Wayne State adjuncts had some health benefits, too.
— Anti-hypocrisy advocate · May 12, 11:09 PM · #
P.S. A significant gain from these “job security” provisions is likely in the area of qualifying for unemployment compensation (lack of work, etc.) – but the corresponding loss may be the elimination of the possibility of summer unemployment comp (due to promise of work, etc.).
There is a guide somewhere online on the topic of the states’ summer unemployment comp for adjuncts, whose URL our blog host MB can surely provide here. (Thanks!)
— Anti-hypocrisy advocate · May 13, 07:26 AM · #
Why not just tenure the people with six consecutive years of service? Also, it is very easy to get out of a meaningful contract clause regarding guarantees such as described here. In addition to the ways already described by Anti-hypocrisy advocate, the administration can simply negotiate to drop the clause from the next contract. Another way is to change, in each contract, the date from which the six continuous terms is to be counted. Another way is to change the assignment of the contingent faculty member (e.g., give her a “good” class and give her clerical and administrative tasks for the equivalent of another class or two and a research assignment for the equivalent of a class, and then the next term return her to her normal teaching). Again, why not just tenure these people? The answers to this question, of course, reveal problems no one wants to talk about.
— Jesse · May 14, 06:48 AM · #
This will come as a shock to many, but the full-time “tenured” faculty of SUNY do not have statutory tenure. The faculty know they have something called “continuing appointment” but they probably don’t realize that it is re-negotiated with each contract. All the SUNY faculty really have is a collectively-bargained complex definition of what constitutes “notice” for separation – which can change.
SUNY even has a “contracting out” clause (which I am told by friends in SUNY that AAUP did not oppose) which would permit it to assign a tenured faculty member to do other work at another campus – just keeping the same title and salary but not the same position. That’s right: s/he could become a high-paid janitor and it would be perfectly legal.
So, these issues are far more complex and disturbing than meet the eye. I highly recommend reviewing the “tenure” contracts in some of the nation’s largest universities/systems. It makes for very enlightening reading.
— Anti-hypocrisy advocate · May 14, 08:40 AM · #