Inside Higher Ed
October 28th, 2014
Service Employees International Union launched its Adjunct Action campaign less than two years ago, with an ambitious goal: take SEIU's metro-wide adjunct organizing effort in Washington, D.C. -- which took years to establish -- national, and fast. Drives were soon happening from Boston to San Francisco, leading to a dozen new unions.
Now Adjunct Action is touting its first successful contract negotiation, and adjuncts at Tufts University outside Boston are saying it could serve a model for the many contract negotiations happening elsewhere.
Highlights include significant pay increases, longer-term contracts and -- perhaps most meaningfully -- the right to be interviewed for full-time positions in one’s department.
“We were definitely aware of the scope of the national problem and we wanted to be able to do something that would be helpful, both in terms of being a genuine response to our needs for pay parity and better working conditions, and also for a more respect for what we do,” said Elizabeth Lemons, a 16-year Tufts adjunct instructor of religion who participated in the negotiations.
Tufts adjuncts voted last fall to form a union affiliated with SEIU. They were the first in the Boston area to do so, followed by Lesley and Northeastern Universities. Organizing is under way at Boston University, while a proposed union at Bentley University was voted down. SEIU has seen similar successes at campuses in cities as far away as Seattle; most recently, adjuncts at Washington University in St. Louis filed for a union election, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.