I don’t know anything about Lakeland Community College in Ohio, much less about the issues that may be provoking faculty there to go on strike (but I can guess they are similar to those faced by faculty everywhere). However, when I chanced across this inspiring post from this morning on the website of the Ohio…
SEIU has been pursuing a regional strategy to organize adjunct faculty in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. The campaign is called Adjunct Action. Thus far, the results have been mixed. In mid-June, adjunct faculty at Hamline University became the first adjuncts in Minnesota to form a collective bargaining unit, voting to unionize by a 72%-28%…
In an article titled “Outsourced in Michigan” written for Inside Higher Ed, Colleen Flaherty chronicles the movement among Michigan’s community colleges to outsource the hiring of adjunct faculty and the management of related “payroll duties” to a corporation called EDUStaff. EDUStaff had previously specialized in providing substitute teachers for K-12 systems. So, if you have…
Bonuses, both for performance and longevity, have become commonplace for higher-ed administrators at both public and private institutions. Indeed, these bonuses have become so commonplace that they now generally go unnoticed and unquestioned. But when such bonuses continue to be given during periods of great budget constraints, while faculty and staff compensation and/or positions are…
The following is the text of a press release issued this morning and posted on the AAUP’s web site: For Immediate Release July 9, 2014 Contacts: Howard Bunsis, chair AAUP-CBC or Aviva F. Bowen, Director of Communications, IFT Non-tenure track faculty in Champaign-Urbana join national movement to improve university working conditions and student success CHAMPAIGN –…
Yesterday a guest blogger posted to this site an “Open Letter to Professional Staff Congress (CUNY) President Barbara Bowen.” The leadership of the AAUP has authorized the posting of the following response to that posting: On behalf of the AAUP, we want to stress, as prominently noted on the masthead above, that opinions published on…
Sean Kennedy is a doctoral student at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The PSC is in the midst of negotiating a new contract with CUNY. Kennedy originally wrote and posted this letter in mid-May. It now has nearly 200 signatories. Dear Barbara— I write as a union member and CUNY contingent…
While enjoying my coffee this morning I caught up on the latest Academe blog posts by Aaron and Marty on the important and continuing theme of the exploitation of adjunct faculty. I then turned to this morning’s San Francisco Chronicle, where I found an absorbing article reporting that today, July 5, marks the 80th anniversary…
John’s keynote was covered in the following two articles by Renata Birkenbuel published in the Montana Standard, and they are reprinted here with the permission of that newspaper [http://mtstandard.com/]. This first article appeared ahead on the AFL-Cio meeting on June 13: Anaconda Man Documents 2011 Unionbusting Attempt in Ohio “It’s the people in the…
Thomas E. Perez, Secretary of Labor: “Home care workers do heroic work, providing high-quality, compassionate care that allows seniors and people with disabilities to live at home with independence and dignity. “By organizing together, these workers have improved both their own working conditions and the quality of services they provide. The demand for skilled home…