N.J. passes legislation for adjuncts

With a friend in the governor's mansion and the appeals of adjunct and part-time faculty starting to hit home, prospects for legislative action on a number of issues look good for this year, says Nick Yovnello, president of the New Jersey Council of State College Locals.

On June 24, Gov. James McGreevey signed Assembly Bill 459, which requires the Legislature to hold hearings on adjunct pay and benefits. Before the hearings can take place, however, New Jersey's Commission on Higher Education must gather information on adjunct pay and benefits in the state's public institutions and make a recommendation on establishing a minimum. The bill also requires the union representing the employees at each institution to provide its figures to the Legislature. All this must be wrapped up by the end of September, so the findings of the legislative study should be released this semester, says Yovnello.

In addition, two other bills are likely to become law, which will improve health benefits for all faculty in the state. Although unions in New Jersey negotiate for major medical benefit coverage, they cannot negotiate the details. These are set by a commission consisting of the state treasurer, the commissioner of banking and insurance, and the director of the state health benefits program. The two measures, which are expected to pass, will permit part-time and adjunct faculty to participate in the state's health benefits program at cost, and will provide for the election of employee representatives to serve on the state health benefits commission.

PSC contract breaks new ground

In the past few years, not a union in New York City has settled a contract without a knockdown-dragout fight. The Professional Staff Congress, representing more than 17,000 full-time and part-time faculty and academic staff at the senior and two-year colleges of the City University of New York, was no exception. But with new leadership at the helm and a more ambitious agenda on the table, the PSC had much on the line.

In early March, after 18 months of negotiations, CUNY and PSC announced that they had reached a settlement. The details were kept secret for weeks as the state, city and university system worked out the means for delivering their financial pieces. In the end, the union cinched the same pattern contract as the other municipal unions--9 percent over the life of the 27-month contract--but the design of the settlement made all the difference.

A goal of the negotiations, says PSC president and AFT vice president Barbara Bowen, was both to achieve salary increases and "structural change." PSC came to the table with 170 demands aimed at addressing longstanding issues such as salary erosion, inequities in the pay and treatment of adjunct faculty, and the toll years of underfunding the system had taken on teaching and learning. It linked the well-being of CUNY's employees to the goal of rebuilding the university.

The contract delivers on an important promise the union has made to its 7,200 adjuncts--to work to achieve parity with full-time faculty. In addition to across-the-board raises, adjuncts with a teaching load of six or more contact hours will receive an additional hour's pay for holding office hours or other professional activities. This boosts the pay of about 2,900 adjuncts by up to 23 percent. The contract also provides for adjuncts who have taught consecutive semesters for three years to get yearlong teaching apppointments.

For full-time faculty, the contract provides reduced workloads for some who are working at two senior colleges, research release time for new junior faculty, increased professional development funds for academic staff, and tuition remission for graduate students who teach at CUNY as graduate assistants or adjuncts.

The PSC negotiating team got a lot of help from members to win a settlement, notes Bowen. They turned out for demonstrations, attended board meetings, picketed every other day during the final weeks of negotiation and shared historical information on CUNY with students during "teach-ins." Once the settlement was reached, the union's leaders met with 1,500 members in meetings across the city.

On May 24, in a mail ballot, 93 percent of the membership voted to ratify. One month later, the CUNY board of trustees also signed off. "Because we set our sights high and backed up our vision with detailed research and strategic membership pressure," says Bowen, "the PSC was able to win things denied to us for 25 years."