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Adjunct professors from Duquesne University are petitioning the National Labor Relations Board this afternoon to hold an election to unionize.
The move comes just a few hours after the Adjunct Association of the United Steelworkers Union unsuccessfully asked the school to voluntarily recognize the union, according to Robin Soward, a member of the Duquesne Adjunct Faculty Association’s volunteer organization.
A union bid would affect 124 adjuncts in the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts. Once the petition is filed, Soward says an election should be held within 45 days, though if the petition is approved, Duquesne will have the opportunity to file any legal challenges. If the union prevails, and wins the election, it can begin negotiating for the instructors.
Soward says a majority of the adjuncts have already signed cards supporting a union.
“Only a handful of professors have voiced opposition overall,” Soward says. “But that’s not entirely surprising given how poorly we’re paid.”
Soward says adjuncts currently make a little over $2,500 per course and are limited to teaching two courses per semester and have no access to healthcare. Through negotiations adjuncts would seek higher pay, the ability to teach at least three courses per semester and have healthcare made available.
And while it’s too early to know what kind of contracts the prospective union would negotiate, Soward says conditions at universities like George Washington, for example, “improved dramatically” after forming a union.
Duquesne’s spokesperson Bridget Fare, said via email that the university won’t be discussing details of the meeting or the decision. Duquesne, she says, “will be following the NLRB process.”
This article appears in May 9-15, 2012.
I really hope Duquesne University does the right thing and recognizes the union. Normally, when employers refuse to recognize the union, it’s because they want to try to hire a union-busting law firm to turn things around, find technical ways to challenge the bargaining unit, and intimidate people who are supporting the union. Collective negotiation is a social, beneficial endeavor. I wouldn’t expect anything less from teachers. Hopefully, Pittsburghers can continue to be proud of their educational institutions, including Duquesne. — E. W. Wolfson, Pittsburgh, PA
I really hope Duquesne University does the right thing and recognizes the union. Normally, when employers refuse to recognize the union, it’s because they want to try to hire a union-busting law firm to turn things around, find technical ways to challenge the bargaining unit, and intimidate people who are supporting the union. Collective negotiation is a social, beneficial endeavor. I wouldn’t expect anything less from teachers. Hopefully, Pittsburghers can continue to be proud of their educational institutions, including Duquesne.
The amazing thing is that adjunct faculty are actually the university’s best asset: the front line with undergraduates, especially first-year students, so adjuncts have everything to do with the retention of undergraduates and the financial health of the university. Adjuncts essentially love teaching and scholarship and creative work so much that they do it for nothing. Undergraduates and their parents would be shocked to learn how poorly paid their best teachers–about whose classes evaluations regularly say “best class I ever had”–are. Those who help students learn to think critically about their world cannot even afford to go to the hospital if sick and frequently receive food stamps. –Robin Clarke, Wilkinsburg
$2500 per course is outrageously low! College faculty, especially those teaching freshman composition, spend long hours grading papers, preparing for class, keeping up to date in their fields, choosing books, making handouts to address particular problems, emailing students, meeting with students, and writing letters of recommendation for students. Doctors and lawyers are respected and well-remunerated for their studies; why not adjunct faculty?
Across the country, universities are relying more and more on adjunct faculty, and it’s high time that universities accept the right of adjuncts to bargain for better salaries and benefits, protection of their academic freedom, and recognition of the dedication and professionalism they bring to their work. It would be best if Duquesne were simply to recognize the will of the majority shown by their signing of the cards. But if that is not to be, the University should at least not stand in the way of a speedy NLRB-conducted election. — Philip Wion, Pittsburgh, PA