California moves toward part-time faculty pay equity

Calif. Gov. Gray Davis has proposed spending $62 million next year to raise the pay of part-time faculty who teach in the community college system. These faculty, who number more than 28,000, teach 40 percent of the classes in the state's community colleges. The proposal also includes an additional $7.9 million to pay the part-timers for holding office hours.

In the past three years, part-time college faculty represented by the California Federation of Teachers have waged a careful, but passionate, campaign to make legislators and the public aware of their inequitable compensation situation. Two years ago, legislators approved funding to pay a portion of part-timers for holding office hours. In some districts, part-timers have been able to secure medical benefits. Last year, in lieu of a bill that would have provided funds to begin correcting salary disparities, the Legislature directed the state auditor to gather data on the problem.

The auditor's report, which was released last fall, showed that part-time faculty make 42 cents for every dollar full-time faculty earn. Part-timers account for 67 percent of the teaching force in California community colleges. Correcting the salary inequity, the auditor estimated, would require a $144 million allocation in each of the next three years.

"Gov. Davis has recognized that the quality of education and simple fairness demand that educators not have to spend hours flying down freeways between part-time jobs" to make ends meet, notes CFT president Mary Bergan. "The governor's initiative provides support for the CFT Community College Council's efforts, which persuaded the community college board of governors to sign on to a three-year plan to fully close the pay gap between part-time and full-time faculty."

Oregon labor board rules for graduate employees

The University of Oregon committed an unfair labor practice when it unilaterally decided to deny its graduate employees union access to required bargaining unit information, the Oregon Employment Relations Board has ruled. Using an old federal law, but applying it in a new way, the university had claimed that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) barred it from releasing a list of the names, identification numbers, addresses and employment status of those graduate students it employed as teaching fellows to the union that represents them, the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation/AFT. This was information the university had been providing to the union, by the terms of the contract and under state bargaining law, for years.

The labor board ruling will be heartening to graduate employees--both to those who are organized already and to those seeking recognition. Last year, the University of California tried to use FERPA as a last-ditch weapon to block a decade-long union drive by graduate employees there (see "Student privacy law suddenly proves bollixing to unions," December 2000-January 2001 AFT On Campus). The tactic has been picked up by other universities, but was a surprising wrench thrown into the bargaining mechanism of the GTFF, which is one of the oldest graduate employee unions in the country. GTFF administers the health plan that provides coverage for its members, so in addition to needing member information to function as a union, it also required the information to manage the health benefits plan.

FERPA protects a student's right to privacy by requiring that grades or other personal information be disclosed to an employer or third party only with the student's permission. FERPA does allow the disclosure of "directory" information, however. In fact, while the university was refusing to release information to the union, the very same information was available publicly in the library and college catalog, and had been provided to credit card companies soliciting for business.

Administrative law judge Vickie Stilley-Cowan ruled that the university unilaterally changed the terms and conditions of employment for the graduate teaching fellows by refusing to provide information it agreed to in the contract. The university is obligated to bargain these terms no matter what a federal law may say.

The judge's ruling is absolutely fundamental, says AFT legal counsel David Strom. "It is the employer's obligation to work with the union and to furnish information to the union about members--who they are, where they work, and so on. This continues irrespective of FERPA. It is mandated by state law."

Leaders shape AFT's higher ed agenda

AFT's higher education program and policy council (PPC) met in January, approved and sent two resolutions on remedial education to the AFT executive council and agreed on an ambitious agenda for the coming year. Reviewing the union's positions and activities on a number of fronts, the 21 assembled leaders focused on legislative priorities, research and communication, and following up on initiatives undertaken in the last few years.

On the legislative front, the PPC recommended that the union focus on student aid and distance education issues. As always, we seek to (1) increase the funding for Pell Grants, (2) allow the grants to apply to remedial work and (3) extend the high level of coverage through the junior and senior years. In the area of distance education, the union supports expanding access to the Internet but also recommends that research be conducted to learn about the effectiveness of distance education. Our members believe that face-to-face classroom time must be a component of students' education and therefore seek to limit the amount of distance education coursework that could apply to the degree. In other federal matters, the AFT will continue to advocate for supporting teacher education programs, for legislation that allows organizing and bargaining in higher education, and for broadening the eligibility requirements for welfare recipients who want to attend college.

In the coming year, the higher education leaders and staff will upgrade communication with members by improving Web site offerings and issuing studies on subjects ranging from technology to charter colleges to the "corporatization" of public higher education. The union will continue its ongoing efforts and commitment to issues related to the academic work force--such as declining full-time faculty lines and the increasing reliance on undercompensated part-timers and graduate students. Many of our affiliates are addressing these matters in their legislatures and through bargaining; and the PPC will make sure that their strategies are shared nationally.

The PPC also explored ways the union can support other labor struggles. It endorsed a university code of conduct--developed by a group called Scholars, Artists and Writers for Social Justice--that calls upon academic employers to support the rights of their employees to bargain, earn a living wage and work under humane conditions. The council again pledged support to the Students Against Sweatshops movement.

Finally, the PPC met with leaders from the United Faculty of Florida, the union representing faculty in the state's public universities. The UFF is now jointly affiliated with the AFT as well as the NEA, a result of the recent state merger. The UFF is dealing with challenges associated with the Florida Legislature's decision to decentralize the University of Florida and the Florida State University systems.