Washington University Adjuncts Vote to Form SEIU Union
There’s a lot of this going around lately. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this is a recipe for disaster.
Via Inside Higher Ed.
Adjuncts at Washington U. Vote to Form SEIU Union
Adjunct professors at Washington University in St. Louis voted to form a union affiliated with Service Employees International Union, they announced Monday. More than 400 adjuncts will be part of the new bargaining unit, which is the first in St. Louis affiliated with SEIU’s Adjunct Action metro-wide organizing campaign.
Some 62 percent of adjuncts turned out to vote; 138 voted yes and 111 voted no. Michael O’Bryan, an adjunct instructor of English, called the vote an “important step toward improving the labor conditions of university faculty and, consequently, the learning experience of the students taught by those faculty” in an announcement. The university said in a statement that it is “committed to working with the union on matters of mutual importance.”
Comments
Why will this lead to disaster? Because adjuncts are beginning to insist that they be given the same respect as full-time faculty? That they seek health benefits? That they protest poverty-level wages and demand a modicum of security in their work lives? If this leads to disaster then the system that allowed such workplace abuses for the sake of financial gain was rotten to the core.
Bullshit.
What they want is tenure. A guaranteed lifetime full-time employment contract, in an idyllic college atmosphere, plus bene’s.
I’m wondering if Mr. O’Bryan can provide any evidence whatsoever in support of his claim that unionization leads to improved learning experiences for students.