Adjunct professors at Temple University are one step
closer to unionizing after they filed authorization with the Pennsylvania Labor
Relations Board this week.
The filing came after organizers successfully collected
signatures from 60 percent of Temple's 1,100 adjuncts – part-time teachers who
work with virtually no benefits or job security. The adjuncts will vote this
spring on whether to be represented by the United Academics of Philadelphia and
the Temple Association of University Professionals.
"All of the adjuncts I know are dedicated teachers –
they love teaching, or they'd go do something more profitable and stable,"
said Elizabeth Spencer, an adjunct English professor who helped organize the
union push. "But still, I think the students suffer from having a largely
adjunct workforce – a workforce that doesn't have a union, doesn't have any
benefits, and doesn't have a guarantee that it'll have a job in the
spring."
Spencer said that even if the adjuncts vote to unionize,
no adjunct will be forced to pay dues or formally join the union.
But she hopes that collective bargaining will help
adjuncts negotiate better working conditions – not just higher pay or benefits,
she said, but more transparency about how adjuncts are assigned classes, and
more security about their role on campus and their future with the faculty.
Among those who would benefit are students, she said.
"To give you one example, a lot of students need
recommendation letters to get into graduate school, or to receive a job, or to
get a scholarship," Spencer said. "And I always try to do that when
students ask me ... but some adjuncts have to say 'no,' because they simply
don't have those extra hours to write those letters.
"Some of them are quite involved," she added.
"Right now, I have a student who's applying to 10 different graduate
schools. I thought I would be able to write one letter and send it to all the
schools. But each school wants something slightly different, and they want you
to fill out their own questionnaire, so it can be pretty involved – and that's
the kind of work that professors do that doesn't get quantified."
A better deal could go a long way toward easing the
pressure on adjuncts, she said, who typically earn about $5,000 to teach one
class for one semester – a job that can demand anywhere from seven to 10 hours
a week, between class time, grading papers, and commuting. An adjunct who wants
to approach a living wage by teaching five or six classes can easily end up
working 60 hours a week, she said – with no guarantee that they'll have the
same class load the next semester.
A union-negotiated deal that gave adjuncts a little more
security and a little more time to breathe between tasks would benefit
everyone, she said
"Maybe they won't have to teach as many classes, so
they'll be able to make [a few] more comments on each student's paper, or
they'll have more time to talk after class," said Spencer. "They
won't be rushing to catch the subway to go to the other campus. I just think
they'll be able to give students more of themselves."
Spencer says there's no date set for the spring union
vote, but she expects the challenge for union supporters will be to make their
case and get out the vote among adjuncts.
A spokesman for Temple said the university would have no
comment while it reviewed the adjuncts' filing.
Source: NewsWorks
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