Part-time faculty at Northern New Mexico College joined more than 40 full-time faculty and 60 classified staff when they voted overwhelmingly this month for collective bargaining through AFT. The vote in a unit of about 180 adjuncts was 96 to 10 for representation by Northern Federation of Educational Employees, Local 4935/AFT.

Among the most compelling issues for the part-timers was pay equity: per credit hour, adjuncts make one-half to one-third as much as full-time faculty, says NFEE president Tim Krone. They also have no healthcare benefits.

Krone said the organizing committee canvassed the larger campuses of the college on Saturdays, finding potential members to talk to about the union. The union also set up a telephone tree and was able to include an informational letter with paychecks.

The committee also worked to persuade adjuncts who hold full-time jobs off campus and were ambivalent about the union to support their less financially secure colleagues. "We have a core of people who teach 12 credits or more per semester," says Krone. "This really is most of their income and in some cases all of their income." Pointing this out to unit members who were initially noncommittal about the union made all the difference in pulling in votes, he said.

Krone expects NFEE will have a contract proposal for administrators next month and begin negotiations soon after.

Adjunct faculty member and organizer Lou Schiano notes that the state budget may play a heavy hand in continuing to control salaries but, he adds, "We all believe that the one sure way of making a forward step is through the union."

The NFEE victory comes against a backdrop of significant successes for New Mexico labor. A collective bargaining law passed in 1993 was allowed to sunset in 1999 under a Republican governor. It was resurrected in 2003 under Gov. Bill Richardson and was enhanced to include card check recognition. This year, in addition to the adjuncts at Northern New Mexico College, AFT New Mexico prevailed in the face of numerous district appeals to gain certification on May 3 for a wall-to-wall local of teachers, classifieds and paraprofessionals in Gadsden, N.M. [Virginia Myers Kelly]

May 18, 2006

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