Adjunct Organizing Committee

Summer Semester I

Success

 

In the first summer semester, Dan Friedlaender and I have been canvassing for the Adjunct Organizing Committee, recruiting members and activists for the adjunct unit of TAUP. Many adjuncts we met were so enthusiastic that they volunteered to do activist work in the fall and spring semesters. Those we recruit now will be invaluable in the future as departmental liaisons for our efforts.

Over the past month, we have collected information from more than fifty adjunct teachers at Temple University, simply by visiting them before or after their classes. Overwhelmingly, the teachers we spoke with want to be unionized. It is obvious to most of those trying to make a living on an adjunct’s pay that we are not receiving adequate compensation for our work. In addition to improved wages, people expressed interest in health insurance, other benefits, job security, a grievance procedure, and the ability to move to full time nontenure-track positions.

If the second summer semester goes as well as the first, we hope to move into the fall with some one hundred to one hundred fifty interested adjuncts and two dozen activists and department liaisons. This core group will serve as the foundation for our full-scale move to become part of TAUP, beginning in September.

Given the amount of time it took us to contact adjuncts in the first summer semester and the increase in the number of courses during the regular school year, we will need to increase the numbers of activists talking to adjunct instructors both within and outside their departments to achieve our goal.

We believe in our ability to bring adjuncts together under the banner of better wages and equal treatment. By the time we prepare an authorization vote in the spring semester, our bargaining unit should be ready to join with the full time faculty as members of TAUP. If you are an adjunct and have not yet registered with the Adjunct Organizing Committee, please fill out our information sheet. Our success depends on you.

 

-Frank Fucile

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AOC Mission Statement