Victory at Cascadia Community College

The newest college in the community and technical college system in Washington state now has the Washington Federation of Teachers' newest union on board. On May 14, ballots were tallied for the 100-person unit, and the count was 34-3 for the union. The Cascadia Community College Federation of Teachers will represent 22 full-timers and 80 part-time faculty, says Rebecca Jaffe, WFT field representative.

Cascadia is a "beautiful, high-tech new college," with a strong transfer mission, Jaffe reports. Faculty have been enthusiastic and energetic players in the new college's start-up, working especially hard on implementing its outcomes-based learning and assessment model. After just a year, however, it wasn't hard to see the need for a union, says Bruce McKenna, a member of the union's organizing committee.

For one thing, the college's program requires extensive committee work on the part of its faculty, who meet regularly to define learning outcomes and assessment strategies. The faculty of 100 serve on 15 committees, McKenna notes. The committee work and 15-credit-hour workloads are "too much," he adds.

For another thing, the administration has been slow to talk about raises. Many of the teachers who joined the Cascadia faculty came from other colleges in the system. "After a year, some could see we would have gotten 8 percent if we had stayed at our old jobs," McKenna points out. The president first said she had to discuss raises with a committee, then refused to do so.

More than half of the faculty serve part time, so ensuring they get adequate salaries is a priority for the negotiations that are set to begin this fall. Faculty would also like a voice in determining the hiring procedures.

Dowling adjuncts join the union

A union of more than 400 adjunct faculty voted this summer to join the AFT. The new union, the Dowling College Adjunct Chapter, is affiliated with the New York State United Teachers and joins a chapter of full-time faculty that has been a NYSUT/AFT local for 30-plus years. The vote was 168 for NYSUT to 11 for no rep.

The issues that motivated the adjuncts are money, benefits and job security, says Richard Baron, a NYSUT labor specialist. The pay for teaching a three-credit course at Dowling, a private college, begins at $1,800 and tops out at $2,200, says Susanne Bleiberg-Seperson, president of the Dowling College full-time faculty chapter. This is significantly less than other colleges pay. The adjuncts became increasingly aware of their poor situation at the college, especially as they picked up teaching jobs in other Long Island colleges with NYSUT affiliate unions. NYSUT represents 20,000 adjuncts statewide.

"Adjuncts earn 40 cents on the dollar compared with full-time faculty," notes NYSUT president Thomas Y. Hobart Jr. "Now, with NYSUT on their side, the adjuncts at Dowling College can fight for the professional respect they deserve."

Calif. adjuncts find high moral ground

Community colleges in California have seen a wave of organizing activity in the past two years--with elections won, new locals affiliated and new contracts being negotiated statewide. Cards were filed for faculty in two community college districts last spring, and a third filing is imminent. A common denominator in all three districts is a search for stability--especially given the uncertainties of a state budget deeply in the red.

In April, an AFT organizing committee at Cerritos Community College filed cards for a unit representing 300 full-time and 650 part-time faculty. The committee has reasons to be proud, says AFT national representative Linda Cushing. For one thing, Cerritos is the last community college district in the state where faculty have lacked representation. For another, leaders of the full-timers and part-timers have established a unique power-sharing arrangement to work collegially on issues of mutual interest. Their goal is to sweep the election (set for October) and settle differences--if there are any--before they get to the bargaining table.

Cerritos has been dragging itself through a period of high administrative turnover, Cushing explains. The latest president was asked to leave; the faculty and union are the only source of continuity. They have been engaged in a meet-and-confer process--"We call it meet and beg," says Cushing--but as often as not, the administration reneges on agreements "if it feels it cannot afford them," she adds.

Over the past decade, full-time faculty have seen salaries drop steadily compared to other faculty in the state's 72 districts, while part-time faculty salaries have been near the bottom of all urban districts in Southern California. Following the passage of a state bill mandating $57 million in funds targeted to raise part-time faculty salaries, however, the faculty feel hopeful about their ability to address that slippage through the work of a union. And because they are working together, part-timers feel they can raise their standard of living without having to compete with full-timers for the same pot of money.

Part-timers-only units in two districts

Part-time faculty working with the AFT have filed a petition for an election at the College of the Canyons in the Santa Clarita Community College District, and another petition filing at Victor Valley Community College District is on the horizon. Their road to securing the right to bargain collectively is proving to be a bumpy one, however--the result of some unusual circumstances involving funding and management shenanigans, reports Cushing.

First, some background: In 2001, after years of effort, part-time faculty groups led by the California Federation of Teachers, achieved a major coup when Gov. Gray Davis proposed a $57 million pool of funds to address part-time faculty pay equity disparities in the community colleges. The legislation governing the budget act stipulated that colleges must work with a bargaining agent representing the part-timers. Together they would address such questions as how to define pay equity for part-timers and how to apply the funds to correct disparities.

The first batch of money was made available for the 2001-02 academic year, and colleges have until February 2003 to distribute the money or lose the funds. Despite a $20 billion budget deficit in the state, the governor has thus far indicated that the second batch of $57 million is still in the budget for next year. Once the part-timers in a given district have reached agreed-upon parity goals, the district can use the funds for other purposes.

At College of the Canyons, where full-time faculty have been represented by a non-AFT bargaining agent for years, administrators moved quickly to position themselves to qualify for a piece of the $57 million action. While part-timers were openly organizing with AFT and collecting signatures to petition for an election, management was moving to have the part-timers folded into the full-time unit.

This sudden interest was a problem for the part-timers for several reasons, says Cushing. For one thing, the full-time union had declined many years of requests to represent the part-time faculty. For another, the CFT/AFT performance in the state had thoroughly convinced the educators that their best prospects lay with the CFT. In two years, the CFT has won three elections, affiliated another unit and negotiated one of the strongest first contracts in state history at North Orange County Community College.

When the AFT filed a majority of cards with the California Public Employment Relations Board this past spring, College of the Canyons administrators were quick to say it would only recognize part-timers as part of the full-time unit. As a result, the AFT has filed an unfair labor practice against the district, charging managers with violating a statutory requirement that they be neutral. The California PERB has placed an injunction on the district not to bargain part-time faculty matters with the full-time faculty representatives. The same situation is unfolding at Victor Valley, where the part-time faculty hope to file cards this fall.

"The part-timers have the moral high ground," says Cushing, having filed a majority of cards that show their wishes. "We ask management, 'Why are you standing in their way?'"

One possible answer: self-interest. Legislators are counting on unions to be the watchdogs on how districts use the funds. State law stipulates that the equity money is not supposed to be used to supplant what otherwise was being spent on part-time faculty. Already, the CFT is aware of districts that are trying to shift the money into place to cover old, unrelated commitments. The union is raising questions.

"Part-time faculty at COC and VV are paying the price for AFT's previous success in other places," says Cushing. "We're aggressive advocates for these people. The district is looking at us nervously, believing they'll have to give up more in the way of money, administration (medical benefits, for example) and other things. Districts will have to change record keeping and accounting because they never bothered to break out part-time from full-time overload. We're putting them through their paces. That's just as it should be."

At NYU, adjuncts choose the UAW

In a hard-fought contest to represent 4,000 adjuncts at the New York University, the adjuncts cast 52 percent of their votes for the United Auto Workers. The July 9 tally in the national Labor Relations Board election was 827 for the UAW and 688 for the AFT, with 101 ballots declared void and 81 challenged. The election was a runoff after a three-way vote in June determined that the adjuncts wanted a union, but neither the AFT nor the UAW got a clear majority against the vote for no agent.
AFT national representative Trip McCrossin congratulated the adjuncts and our sister union, the UAW, for the victory. He noted that the election was "a clear victory for the labor movement. We look forward to working with the UAW at NYU."