SEIU represents 15,000 part-time and contingent faculty from Maine to California. Below are details of our regional campaigns.
DC/Maryland:
SEIU Local 500 Coalition of Academic Labor is pioneering a strategy to unite contingent faculty on campuses across the D.C. metro area to raise standards for their profession and win a strong voice in the future of higher education. SEIU Local 500 represents more than 2,400 part-time professors at George Washington University (GW) and American University in Washington, DC and Montgomery College in Maryland. On March 23, 2013, adjuncts at Georgetown University filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to form a union for adjuncts at the school.
Local 500 member are working to gain compensation that equitably reflects the value of teaching in the classroom, and have secured higher rates of pay at George Washington and Montgomery College. Faculty at American University are in the process of negotiating their first contract. Adjunct members of Local 500 are working together to improve job security on their campuses; faculty at Montgomery College who teach for 8 semesters can now apply for an annual appointment with a guaranteed course load. At George Washington, part-time faculty now can only be denied reappointment to courses they have taught before under limited, specified circumstances.
Click here to see more details on the most recent contract for George Washington’s contingent faculty.
Maine:
In a significant win in 2010, part-time adjunct faculty members in the Maine Community College System formed a union with the Maine State Employees Association, Local 1989 of the Service Employees International Union. Adjunct faculty voted 264-96 to form a union at a time when student enrollment in the Maine Community College System reached record levels.
”The success of any university lies on the backs of the adjunct faculty. If you don’t have ownership of what you do, you can’t take ownership of its success. You need adjunct faculty to be a part of the team,” said Pauli Caruncho, adjunct professor at Washington County Community College, at the time of the vote.
Part-time adjunct faculty members teach 60 percent of the classes in the Maine Community College System, making them the largest workforce in the system. But turnover among adjuncts remains high because of low pay, inadequate benefits and no path to career advancement. Adjuncts with 1989 said they formed a union because they want to be involved in the discussion of how to best ensure a quality education for all students and continue to attract and retain quality educators.
New Hampshire:
At both the University of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Community College system, adjunct professors have formed their unions with SEIU Local 1984, the New Hampshire State Employees Association, which now represents 800 part-time professors across the state.
“Whether it’s winning better pay, health insurance or improving our general working conditions, we can do all of these things by standing together in SEA”, said Craig Cushing, an adjunct professor at NHTI, Concord’s Community College.
In 2011, professors at Plymouth State University voted to form a union with Local 1984. They were joined in January 2012 by contingent faculty from the University of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Community College system.
Connecticut:
The Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges (4C’s), SEIU Local 1973 represents faculty and professional staff at Connecticut’s 12 community colleges. The 4C’s represents full-time and part-time faculty and professional employees at the state’s 12 community colleges. In addition to contract negotiations and grievance handling, the 4C’s has a long tradition of political action, professional development, and cultural and social activities. Since 1973, the 4Cs have negotiated union contracts that have made significant improvements in the wages and rights of employees in the Connecticut Community College System system.
California:
In California, the 23,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches who teach in the California State University system are part of the California Faculty Association, an affiliate of SEIU. As members of CFA, California State University faculty have won contracts that promote academic freedom, uphold faculty rights, deliver financial protection for the faculty, and promote faculty participation in the governance of the CSU and of CFA.
