It's worth reading the entire essay, but here is a teaser.

It used to be the case that non-tenure-track faculty were assumed to be inferior to their tenure-line colleagues. These days, however, jobs have become so scarce in many fields that one’s position in the academic hierarchy is largely an accident of birth. One could probably instantly create a new university that would rival the world’s best simply by hiring from the pool of the un- and under-employed.

Even if academe were a magically pure meritocracy, there would be no reason to treat some of its members as second-class academic citizens. But perhaps the randomness makes an especially strong case for the general rule that contingent faculty should be treated as members of the academic communities of which they are indeed a part. There are three things that need to be done — two easy, one hard: welcome contingent faculty when they arrive, support them while they are there, and thank them when they leave.

Essay on how tenure-track faculty members should treat adjuncts @insidehighered.

Did You Know?

Participation in Faculty Meetings

Article 11.1 of our contract stipulates that in each Department, Adjunct Faculty may send one or two Adjunct Faculty members to Department meetings.  We bargained for this right because, often, adjunct faculty members don’t know what’s going on in their own departments, and don’t know about changes or policies that may affect them.  Our representatives at the meeting can keep other adjunct faculty informed.

If you would like to be the representative for your department, and attend meetings, please let us know.  Some departments are already covered, but many are not.

In some departments, adjunct faculty are welcomed at meetings, and in some, this has become an issue of contention.  If you’re interested in representing your department, please contact anyone in the union leadership team, and we’ll explain the process to you.

Information is power!

Service Employees International Union launched its Adjunct Action campaign less than two years ago, with an ambitious goal: take SEIU's metro-wide adjunct organizing effort in Washington, D.C. — which took years to establish — national, and fast. Drives were soon happening from Boston to San Francisco, leading to a dozen new unions.

Now Adjunct Action is touting its first successful contract negotiation, and adjuncts at Tufts University outside Boston are saying it could serve a model for the many contract negotiations happening elsewhere.

Highlights include significant pay increases, longer-term contracts and — perhaps most meaningfully — the right to be interviewed for full-time positions in one’s department.

Tufts adjuncts tout pay and job security gains in first union contract @insidehighered.

Union of Adjunct Faculty – UAW

Did You Know?

Senior Adjunct Faculty

Because of our first union contract, there is an opportunity for contract professors (adjunct faculty) to advance to the level of Senior Adjunct Faculty.

  • Qualifications:

    • You must teach ten semesters (summer doesn’t count) and ten classes within a rolling seven year period.
  • Benefits:

    • Pay increase of 10% 
    • Job security: Senior Adjunct Faculty will be reappointed to subsequent semesters.  Teaching appointments are made in order of Seniority.
    • If your course is not offered, the University Administration must offer you other appropriate courses that you are qualified to teach.
    • If you have taught at least one course every semester for three years, and have maintained good evaluations, you must be offered one year appointments that maintain the pattern and number of courses you have taught in the preceding three years. 

Details can be found in our contract under section 13.  If you have any further questions, please e-mail us at info@uafuml.org

Did You Know?

Applying for Full-Time Positions

Article 12 of our contract states that the University will notify the Union whenever a posting for a full-time tenure track or non-tenure track position is posted.  Currently, we are receiving notification of ALL open positions, which can be a bit overwhelming to sift through.  However, all open positions are listed on the University’s website.  The link is below:

https://jobs.uml.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1415631688500

If you’re interested in a full-time position or in a different adjunct position, please check this site regularly!

Did You Know?

An every-so-often bit of information about our union contract

Due to union agreements in our first contract, there is no longer a two-course maximum for adjunct (contract) faculty.  

Article 13.1.1.1.6 states:

There is no guaranteed course load – minimum or maximum- for Adjunct Faculty.

There is no contractual reason that you may not teach more than two classes.  If you are told that you may not, please contact your Union Area Representative.

Shoving workers into the precariat like this is the manifestation of corporate greed. That’s clear because some retailers and restaurants including Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, and Modell’s Sporting Goods stores in Manhattan make profits while treating workers fairly. In many of these cases, the workers are represented by unions that bargain for better conditions. That includes schedules posted weeks in advance, full-time work, vacation and sick pay and health insurance coverage.

Collective bargaining gives union workers more power to resist attempts by corporations to impose insecurity.

Precarious Academic Workers Are Pushing Back Against the Tenuous Track – Working In These Times.

What would academe look like without adjuncts? That question could be answered, at least for a day, on the first-ever National Adjunct Walkout Day, planned for Feb. 25, 2015. The protest to highlight adjuncts’ relatively low wages and working conditions – despite the fact that they make up the majority of instructors – is gaining traction on social media, including on Facebook and on Twitter at #NAWD.

via National Adjunct Walkout Day Planned @insidehighered.