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 6 consecutive semesters (to one-year renewable contracts with seniority protections) and, after 6 more terms, 2-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 $1000/credit hour in the most secure tier. Above these minimums are fifteen 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% + $75/credit hour in the first year, then 2.5% 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.
Recently:
- Happy Fourth?
- Poverty In Higher Ed
- What I’m Reading Now
- Meet the Trustees, Part 1: Trustees Behind Bars
- They’ll Be Watching You
- Maybe He Can’t
- Academic Labor Bookshelf
- Job Listing #666
- Psst! Forward this Link to Grad Students
- Don’t Miss COCAL VIII
