Imagine a health insurance plan that only covers three-quarters of your body: Anything breaks below the knees, tough luck!

Sound ridiculous? Washington state adjuncts had to live under the harmful strictures of a similar fraction until a June state Supreme Court ruling in Mader et al. v. The Health Care Authority. Court justices ruled that any part-timer who carries at least a half-time workload has the right to state-paid health insurance during the summer months, thereby making amends to countless adjuncts.

In this case, AFT members have shown that equity can be sought through the judicial branch as well as the legislative. In 1999, a group of part-time faculty (led by Eva Mader, an AFT member) filed a health benefits claim through Bendich, Stobaugh & Strong, P.C., which led to the landmark ruling.

"The law firm put tremendous time and resources into the effort," says Sandra Schroeder, president of the Washington Federation of Teachers (WFT). "The lawsuit's success is a tremendous benefit for part-timers."

The WFT helped the effort as well, providing the attorneys with information throughout the proceedings and filing an amicus brief with the state Supreme Court.

Previously, part-timers had been dropped from state-paid health insurance during the summer months unless they taught summer courses. This inequity forced many adjuncts either to self-fund their health insurance during the summer, costing as much as several hundred dollars a month, or do without. Considering that most adjuncts barely scrape together a living wage as is, additional money for health insurance was far too high a cost to bear.  [Mark Henson]
[August 12, 2003]