Administrators' reliance on contingent labor in higher education is not limited to faculty, the Cook County College Teachers Union has found. In the City Colleges of Chicago, where CCCTU has represented full-time faculty and professional staff (as well as paraprofessionals) for years, leaders have seen a small boom in the number of part-time professionals on staff.

In fact, says Bob Breving, an organizer with the union, since 1987 when the full-time professionals first voted for CCCTU representation, the number of part-timers has grown from none to 220--about the same number as full-timers. The professionals have job titles like computer technician, coordinator of grant programs, special needs specialist, interpreter or child care provider. The big difference between the full- and part-time employees, however, is in the way they are treated. Part-time professionals receive no benefits of any kind, lower hourly pay and few raises, a limited number of work hours and no sense of security from semester to semester.

In February, these workers voted 116 to 3 for union representation by CCCTU. Now, they are working on negotiating an interim contract, with their own salary, benefits and fair share provisions, as they are folded in under the full-time professionals' contract, which expires July 15, 2004. After that date, the part-timers will be merged into the full-time unit and will negotiate one contract together. [Barbara McKenna / AFT On Campus]

[April 16, 2003]