NEA Affiliates in Action

Organizing
The persistence of a core group of union supporters paid off for the faculty at Ohio's Columbus State Community College when the faculty elected the Columbus State Education Association, an NEA affiliate, its collective bargaining agent on November 1.

Despite a loss in a bargaining election 18 months ago and a strenuous, carrot-and-stick, anti-union campaign by the administration, Association supporters persuaded their colleagues that union representation would give the faculty a stronger voice on campus.

"We're looking forward to improving pay, working conditions, and morale on campus through collective bargaining," notes longtime Association leader Carl Rieppel.

In Illinois, part-timers at Sauk Valley and DuPage community colleges have filed petitions with the state labor board for bargaining elections. Meanwhile, the Illinois Education Association continues to work for legislation that gives part-time faculty stronger union organizing rights.

Contracts
When Florida legislators—facing large state budget deficits—moved to cut faculty salaries this fall, they carefully exempted the United Faculty of Florida collective bargaining agreement with the State University System in Florida.

In cutting over a billion dollars from the state budget, the legislature proposed reneging on salary increases scheduled for November 1. The exception: state employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

The state bowed to the primacy of the faculty's collective bargaining agreement because UFF took the legislature to the state Supreme Court the last time they tried to circumvent the agreement, in 1992—and won.

Notes UFF President Tom Auxter, a philosophy professor at the University of Florida, "The next time a faculty member says 1 percent is too much to pay in union dues, tell them the reason they have a pay raise this year—while everything around them is being cut—is that they have a collective bargaining agreement."

Campus Activities
Thousands of part-time and adjunct professors at scores of colleges and universities across the nation took part in this year's Campus Equity Week activities.

The week of activities was intended to raise awareness about abysmal pay and working conditions for most part-timers. Taking part in the activities were NEA local Associations in California, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, and other states.

The California Community College Association joined other faculty organizations in promoting adjunct rights and quality education in a "Freeway Flyer Tour" of several Southern California campuses. CCA President Dian Hasson and a group of CCA members joined colleagues from California's Part-time Faculty Association, the California Federation of Teachers, and others to tour campuses, including two CCA campuses, College of the Desert in Palm Springs, and Southwestern College in San Diego County. CEW events were also held on northern California campuses, as well as on several California State University campuses.

Activists at Olympic College in Washington, making use of an organizing grant from NEA, sponsored a free Campus Equity Week concert, plus several speakers who touched on the idea of equal pay for equal work.

Speakers included the president of the NEA-affiliated Olympic College Association for Higher Education, a former part-timer; a representative from the union of campus staff; a representative from the area's Central Labor Council; and a director of the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

The Chicago Metro Campus Equity Week Steering Committee reports a series of rallies, forums, public hearings, and a benefit concert and conference on behalf of adjunct rights. Illinois activities also included testimony from contingent academic labor representatives before the Senate Education Committee and the formation of the Chicago Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL).