ORGANIZING THE NEW MAJORITY FACULTY: A Report from the Front

Abstract

Contingent faculty, without living wages or benefits, without job security, tenure, or the traditional support system of academic life, are now the majority of instructors for post secondary and adult students. Organizing among these and other employees in higher education has emerged into a phase of national strategizing around common goals. A workshop on “Protecting Human Rights in the Academic Workplace: Organizational Strategies and Experiences of Contingent Faculty” brought together key organizers from across the country to report, share experiences, and move the effort forward.The participants were John Braxton, co-chair of the Part-Time and Visiting Lecturer Bargaining Unit of the Faculty Federation of the Community College of Philadelphia, American Federation of Teachers Local 2026, and Philadelphia Jobs with Justice; Deborah Herman, Campaign to Organize Graduate Students (COGS); John Hess, California Faculty Association and its Lecturers Council in the California State University system; Lynne Dodson, Seattle Community College District Federation of Teachers, AFT; Tom Suhrbur, Illinois Education Association; Alisa Messer, Part-Time Faculty Committee of the Community College Council of the California Federation of Teachers, AFT; Richard Moser, American Association of University Professors; and Gary Zabel, Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL), and University of Massachusetts, Boston. The reports touched on organizing and bargaining, legislative efforts, and coalition building. They also spoke to the implications of social movement unionism in higher education.