In Chicago? I’m surprised they’re not unionized already.

The Chicago Tribune reports.

University of Chicago’s nontenured faculty file to unionize

Nontenure-track faculty at the University of Chicago on Thursday filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

They are requesting an election for a bargaining unit that would represent not only adjuncts, who work part time, but also full-timers. They would join a national movement that has sought better pay and job security for the nontenured faculty who make up the majority of the nation’s higher education workforce.

“We want a stronger voice in decisions made by the university that affect both us and our students,” said Janet Sedlar, a senior lecturer and Spanish language coordinator at the private, prestigious South Side institution.

“Without a union, the employer is free to cut benefits and pay, increase class sizes and all kinds of things at their whim, and we have no recourse,” said Sedlar, 45, of Humboldt Park, who has taught at U of C eight years.

The instructors seeking a union make up about 40 percent of U of C’s faculty.

If the NLRB approves the elections, a unit vote could come this fall, and would be a huge notch in the 2 1/2-year-old Faculty Forward movement spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union.