4/27/2011: This fight has to give the union supporters pause. The AFT says “part-timers must have full voting rights on all union matters, including the election of officers and the ratification of contracts.”
Union to give part-timers full vote?
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AFT higher ed’s largest growth sector is adjuncts (surprise? not really- it’s also the fastest growing sector of university employees). Couple that with the fact that the president of AFT-OR is only part-time, and the incoming vice president is a grad student here and adjunct at Lane, and of course they’re saying this- how else are you going to build the ranks? With dissenting old folks?
Wait, are you actually suggesting that adjuncts should NOT be given a full vote? Seriously?
I think full-time permanent adjuncts should get the same vote as tenure track faculty. But giving a person who teaches one or two classes a year, as a add-on to a regular career off campus, the same vote as a full-time tenure track faculty whose entire life and career revolves around UO is not reasonable. Yet my understanding is that equal voting rights for both is the current position of the Union organizers.
Take out the “permanent” from the above comment: I think full-time (>= 0.75) adjuncts should get the same vote as TT faculty, whether or not the administration wants to call them permanent. I’m thinking of Ken DeBevoise.
Hm. I’d say it’s unreasonable to reproduce the power differential that exists in any academic institution between adjuncts and T-T faculty within the union structure. Equal voting rights are a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for establishing any kind of meaningful solidarity across employment classes.
Obviously there are strong differences of opinion on this, as the article points out. FWIW, I think it’s important enough that the union organizers should hold a public discussion of the pros or cons, before going too much farther down this road.