Join Rapidly Growing Union Movement, Become First HBCU Adjuncts to Form Union
In a significant victory for adjunct faculty across the nation, Howard University adjuncts in Washington, DC, have overwhelmingly voted to form a union with SEIU. Howard’s 176 adjuncts have become the first part-time faculty members at a historically black college or university to have a faculty union. They also join a majority of adjuncts in Washington, DC and a rapidly growing number of part-time faculty who are joining unions across the country.
Washington, DC is the epicenter of what has become a fast-growing union movement, as adjuncts form unions to take on this crisis in higher education that has turned what was once a good middle class profession into a low-wage, no-benefits job without any job security from semester to semester. With Howard’s victory, 80 percent of adjunct faculty in our nation’s capital have joined SEIU Local 500 to raise standards in higher education and gain a voice on campus.
Monique Peters, an adjunct at Howard, said, “I’m thrilled by this victory, but I am even more excited by what will happen next. Adjuncts will have a greater voice at Howard University and be able to work with the administration on a first contract that respects the work of this institution, as well as adjuncts’ critical role in educating Howard students.”
Today’s vote count at Howard University is another inspiring victory in a growing movement of adjuncts who are forming unions to improve conditions and draw attention to higher education’s increasing reliance on contingent faculty. Howard University adjuncts are also joining George Washington University, American University, Georgetown University and Montgomery College as part of SEIU Local 500.
Just yesterday, adjuncts at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, overwhelmingly voted to form a union and join SEIU Local 500.
Adjuncts at more than a dozen schools have already voted or filed for union elections this year to join 18,000 adjunct and contingent faculty members in SEIU, including the University of the District of Columbia, Northeastern and Lesley Universities in Boston, Mills College and the San Francisco Art Institute in the Bay Area, Seattle University in Washington State, Marist College in New York State and Hamline University and Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
