BY MARTIN KICH
COCAL is the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, a nearly 20 year old network of contingent activists and their organizations that does a conference (now tri-national – USA, CAN (including QBC), and MEX) every other year, usually in August. It also sponsors a listserv, called ADJ-L, and has an International Advisory Committee and a website www.cocalinternational.org and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/COCALInternational>.
————————————
CCSF STRUGGLE NEWS
NOTE: Donate to AFT 2121 fund to help the fight for the CCSF that SF deserves. This will help fund their hardship fund in the event of a strike.
https://simplecheckout.authorize.net/payment/CatalogPayment.aspx
1. CCSF rally and boycott of Chancellor’s speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Gpq8cSia4&feature=youtu.be
and http://www.aft2121.org/2016/01/aft-2121-boycott-of-chancellor-lambs-address/
2. Future of the college is the real issue in CCSF union negotiations
http://www.48hills.org/2016/01/19/city-college-faculty-declare-bargaining-impasse/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork
———————————
INTERNATIONAL
1. Turkish lecturers detained for opposing military action
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160115184937503
2. Egyptian gov cancels student union election after their allies lose
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160114134113231
3. Global temps R Us, From the ITUC Gen. Sec. Sent by Vanessa Vaile
See below for full text of report
4. Student grant protest blocks Westminster Bridge for over an hour in London
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-35354718
———————————————
UPDATES IN BRIEF AND LINKS
1. Article on strikes may hold some useful lessons for us, especially as some of our biggest higher ed locals gear up for possible strikes.
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18762/as_attacks_on_unions_continue_bringing_back_the_strike_may_be_our_only_hope
2. Bernie Sanders submits bill to ban “right to work” laws.
http://dianeravitch.net/2015/10/08/bernie-sanders-files-bill-to-ban-right-to-work-laws/
3. More on the action in CO on CC adjunct pay
https://academeblog.org/2016/01/17/what-it-means-to-be-a-budgetary-afterthought/
4. In case you missed this the first time, from our colleague Vanessa Vaile
Collection retrospectively of articles and reports on National Adjunct Walkout Day last year, <http://www.inoreader.com/bundle/0014cd6360bc>
The same material is also available in this format, which can also be embedded in blog posts or on a web page.
http://www.inoreader.com/stream/user/1005957380/tag/%23NAWD/view/html
5. Roxbury CC (MA) reverses IT dept privatization, but new employees are hired and declared outside union bargaining unit, so the fight continues.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/18/audit-forces-roxbury-cc-stop-it-privatization?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=84002272f5-DNU20160118&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-84002272f5-197454541
6. The new age of inequality in higher education
http://bryanalexander.org/2016/01/18/the-new-age-of-inequality-and-what-it-means-for-education-my-january-talk/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook
7. Best Onion higher ed stories of 2015 (including one on adjuncts)
http://chronicle.com/article/The-13-Best-Onion-/234957?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=c2e9d928b0314b3ea56921ed2e974900&elqCampaignId=2240&elqaid=7556&elqat=1&elqTrackId=e3d38891e9c44c379388d5447c50c6be
8. Job announcement: NUHW SF Bay Area, Rep/organizer {Bookmarked to advertisement provided below the links in the original.]
9,. MLK on the purpose of education
https://academeblog.org/2016/01/18/mlk-the-purpose-of-education/
10. Anthro blog on contingency and principles of AAA
http://ethics.americananthro.org/an-intersectional-pov-on-how-the-contingent-faculty-market-is-against-our-other-principles-in-the-aaa-code-of-ethics/
11. DePaul (Chicago) admin weighs in against adjunct unionization
http://depauliaonline.com/2016/01/18/depaul-cautions-adjunct-union/
12. Good article on Friedrichs vs. CTA case, Labor’s Fight or Die Moment
http://socialistworker.org/2016/01/19/labors-fight-or-die-moment
and why some state governments are for strong public sector unions (labor peace)
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/friedrichs-state/424434/
and from Steven Greenhouse, Friedrichs a time bomb for labor
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-friedrichs-case-a-time-bomb-for-unions/2016/01/15/f4ff39da-bac3-11e5-829c-26ffb874a18d_story.html
13. Higher ed teaching force shifts away from tenure
http://www.educationdive.com/news/higher-ed-teaching-force-continues-to-shift-away-from-tenure/412238/
14. New book, Working in Class: recognizing how social class shapes our academic work
https://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/new-working-in-class-recognizing-how-social-class-shapes-our-academic-work/
15. Faculty dealing with the media: advice
https://academeblog.org/2016/01/19/dos-and-donts-for-faculty-and-the-media/
16. NC Adjunct law professor attacked
http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2016/01/adjunct-law-professor-charged-for-violating-privacy
17. MLK, one of America’s great democratic socialists
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/01/18/martin-luther-king-jr-one-nations-great-democratic-socialists
18. SEIU files for combined FTTT and NTT unit at U of MN. Would be biggest in US, says WSJ
http://www.wsj.com/articles/professors-raise-hands-for-unions-1453258802
and http://www.startribune.com/university-of-minnesota-faculty-file-for-union-vote/365851061/
19. VA students march on capitol demanding relief from student debt
http://wtvr.com/2016/01/19/students-march-to-general-assembly-college-loans/
20. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
First Anniversary | January 20, 2016
It’s been a great first year for PrecariCorps.
Since March 2015—when we mailed our first check following the many donations we received during National Adjunct Walkout Day—we’ve given $6,585 to 14 adjuncts. We’ve helped our colleagues afford child care, rent, car insurance, healthcare, and other needs that their pay and benefits do not yet cover. Nearly 92% of our donations have gone directly to our applicants, and all of our available funds will go to them as well.
21. Students at Brandeis lobby to get their professor onto the tenure track.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2016/01/brandeis_students_lobby_to_get_their_professor_a_tenure_track_job_will_it.html
22. LA County Fed of Labor (labor council of LA unions) grant CFA strike sanction against CSU
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/faculty-700571-union-csu.html
23. Loyola U/ Chicago, admin treis to silence students for supporting workers
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-loyola-that-students-wont-be-silenced?can_id=587b791e1946e2adaf17ca20e5e3d480&source=email-i-could-be-suspended-for-protesting-corporate-greed&email_referrer=i-could-be-suspended-for-protesting-corporate-greed&email_subject=i-could-be-suspended-for-protesting-corporate-greed&link_id=0
24. Iowa state legislature puts in bill to fire teachers who get low student evaluations
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2015/05/college_students_are_not_customers_a_political_shorthand_that_needs_to_die.html
25. How to screw over an adjunct, part 1
http://adjunctcrisis.com/2016/01/20/how-to-screw-an-adjunct-part-i-out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new/
26. Union (AFT/NEA) loses Carroll College (MT) decision on FTTT faculty eligibility for NLRB protected unionization, on both religious and Yeshiva grounds.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/21/proposed-faculty-union-carroll-college-first-be-rejected-under-new-guidelines?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=dedf3fac24-DNU20160121&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-dedf3fac24-197454541
27. Conference on Precarious Work: Domination and Resistance in the US, China, and the World. Seattle, Friday, 19 August, 2016, Seattle, USA
call for papers
http://irle.ucla.edu/events/PrecariousWork.php
28. from Morning Shift
By Brian Mahoney and Marianne LeVine | 01/22/2016 10:00 AM EDT
WAL-MART FIRINGS ILLEGAL: Wal-Mart workers were within their rights to go on strike and travel to the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., to protest their working conditions, an NLRB judge ruled Thursday. NLRB Judge Geoffrey Carter said the retailer broke the law in firing workers who participated in the “Ride for Respect” strikes. Sixteen of those workers were ordered reinstated.
The United Food and Commercial Workers had sought a ruling in the case that would expand the kinds of work stoppages held legal under the National Labor Relations Act. Carter disappointed them, ruling instead that the strikes were the traditional sort already protected under the law. Carter’s ruling requires Wal-Mart to read a notice at 29 stores where the alleged crackdowns took place.
The company dodged liability on other charges, including allegations that Wal-Mart spokesperson David Tovar threatened workers unlawfully by appearing on national television news shows and suggesting the strikers could face “consequences” if they don’t show up for work on Black Friday.
To receive the periodic news aggregator, COCAL Updates, Email <joeberry@igc.org> It is archived at http://precaritydispatches.tumblr.com/COCAL-Updates-Archive
To join international COCAL listserve email <http://adj-l.org/mailman/listinfo/adj-l_adj-l.org> If this presents problems, send an e-mail to vtirelli@aol.com or, send “Subscribe” to <adj-l@adj-l.org>
Reblogged this on Ohio Higher Ed.