Young voters exercise their clout

Young people and college students have a message for next year’s presidential hopefuls: We are a force and we want to be reckoned with! This year, as part of the Student Public Interest Research Groups’ (PIRGs) New Voters Project, students are bird-dogging candidates and asking them for specific details on how they will address climate change, college affordability, healthcare and financial security.

The concerted effort is a campaign called “What’s Your Plan?” and the American Federation of Teachers has just endorsed it. The New Voters Project is a national nonpartisan youth voter mobilization effort that has registered more than 600,000 young voters since 2003.

The Student PIRGs have been collecting the data on youth (18- to 29-year-olds) turnout for the past three elections:

■ In 2004, about 20.1 million in this age group voted, up 4.3 million votes from 2000. More young people voted in 2004 than voters over age 65.

■ In 2005, turnout in hotly contested college student precincts in New Jersey and Virginia increased 15 percent to 19 percent, even though turnout for other age groups decreased.

■ In 2006,  turnout in the youth group increased by 2 million votes. It was a big factor in tight races in Connecticut, Montana and Virginia.

History shows that when politicians talk to young voters, even more students vote. The issues at stake are “critical,” says the Student PIRGs’ Web site, “and we’re the generation who will be most affected by them. So we’re not waiting for candidates to come to us. We’re going to them.”

For more on the campaign and the project, visit www.newvotersproject.org.

Wayne State adjuncts vote for union by clear margin

A unit of over 800 adjunct faculty at Wayne State University voted overwhelmingly for representation by the WSU Union of Part-Time Faculty. In the mail ballot election, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission counted ballots on May 14. Of 503 ballots cast, the vote was 442 to 57—or 88 percent—for the union.

The issues that mobilized the adjuncts were lack of office hours and support services, wage stagnation and the lack of health benefits, says Thomas Trimble, an adjunct who teaches composition. During the campaign, AFT Michigan president David Hecker arranged for some adjuncts to meet with the WSU board. The board of governors was “very surprised about the number of classes we teach on average,” says philosophy adjunct Aletia Droba, “about the workload, the lack of health insurance and benefits, and the impact it has on us.”

In addition to working for gains at the bargaining table, AFT Michigan is pushing for legislative relief through a bill modeled on the AFT’s Faculty and College Excellence (FACE) campaign (http://face.aft.org/), says Hecker, who also is an AFT vice president. “AFT Michigan is pursuing legislation to address the exploitation of full- and part-time lecturers as well as the decline in the number of tenure-track faculty.”

This summer, the new local met to form committees and prepare for bargaining, says Susan Titus, an adjunct in the School of Social Work. The union breathed a sigh of relief when the board of governors approved a tuition increase on July 25. “We’ll be doing a survey to help prioritize issues,” she says, “but salary always comes up first. That’s a matter of recognition as much as anything else.”

At WSU, the AFT also represents graduate employees and faculty who are in a union jointly affiliated with the American Association of University Professors.

In Rhode Island landslide, adjuncts vote for AFT

By a 96 percent margin—156 to 3—adjunct faculty at Rhode Island College have voted for the AFT as their exclusive bargaining agent. The yearlong organizing campaign culminated in a three-day voting process in late April.

The unit of more than 300 adjunct faculty members was the only employee group on campus not represented by a union. Full-time faculty at the college already are represented by the AFT and the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals. There are many adjunct employees at RIC with more than 20 years of service to the college, says Jim Kittredge, an English department adjunct who headed the organizing committee. “We have a number of causes for concern, but one of the main reasons for wanting to organize ourselves was simply for respect and recognition as legitimate members of the academic faculty.”

Organizers managed to overcome some of the complications that arise from faculty members’ part-time status, which can make communicating and organizing meetings difficult. “We recognized that adjunct faculty had been exploited and deserved a professional voice at the college,” says Marcia Reback, president of the Rhode Island federation and an AFT vice president. “We gladly provided manpower and financial support to their organizing efforts.”