The new thing is the Metro Strat­e­gy, where mul­ti­ple insti­tu­tions are tar­get­ed at once so a whole region­al work­force becomes union­ized. This takes advan­tage of how con­tin­gent (also known as adjunct) fac­ul­ty mem­bers typ­i­cal­ly com­mute among var­i­ous cam­pus­es, fac­ing equal­ly bad work­ing con­di­tions every­where they go.

A wave of orga­niz­ing is sweep­ing con­tin­gent fac­ul­ty. Below, a list of cur­rent cam­paigns in 22 states and D.C. shows how far and wide this wave has spread.

The goal is a mas­ter con­tract for the work­force. The Ser­vice Employ­ees Inter­na­tion­al Union (SEIU) is tak­ing the lead in this, but oth­er unions are step­ping up, too.

Com­mon Threads

Sev­er­al things should be clear from this roundup. First is the obvi­ous mas­sive pres­ence of SEIU. Its deci­sion to imple­ment the Metro Strat­e­gy has caught the atten­tion of oth­er unions and oth­er parts of the con­tin­gent fac­ul­ty movement.

Of course, any sig­nif­i­cant strug­gle has its own inter­nal strug­gles, and this one is no excep­tion. Giv­en the sev­er­al elec­tion loss­es and peti­tion with­drawals by SEIU, seri­ous dis­cus­sion has emerged about its par­tic­u­lar appli­ca­tion of the oth­er­wise broad­ly accept­ed Metro Strat­e­gy. Which comes first, union-build­ing or win­ning elec­tions? How do you bal­ance long-term and short-term goals? How do you get fac­ul­ty, who are often angry and afraid, to step up and fight? Is there a ​“best way” to imple­ment the Metro Strat­e­gy? How impor­tant are coali­tions among unions? How about com­mu­ni­ty coalitions?

Sec­ond is the num­ber of places where con­tin­gent fac­ul­ty are self-orga­niz­ing into non-stan­dard groups and try­ing to act like a union — some­times with­out either the struc­ture of a col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing law or the assis­tance of an affil­i­a­tion with a union.

Third is the impor­tance of state leg­is­la­tion. Evi­dent­ly many of these groups are try­ing to shape leg­is­la­tion that will ben­e­fit them by set­ting stan­dards for equal pay and job secu­ri­ty, allow­ing them to access unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits, or bring­ing more con­tin­gents under a col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing law.

Fourth is the vari­ety of unions. It’s not just the tra­di­tion­al teacher unions — the Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion (NEA), Teach­ers (AFT), and Uni­ver­si­ty Pro­fes­sors (AAUP) — join­ing this burst of activ­i­ty, but also SEIU, the Steel­work­ers (USW), and the News­pa­per Guild/​Communications Work­ers (CWA).

A last thing to note is the way reli­gious­ly affil­i­at­ed insti­tu­tions are tying up union­iza­tion efforts by claim­ing a Hob­by Lob­by-type exemp­tion from hav­ing to obey the law — in this case, the law cov­er­ing col­lec­tive bargaining.

A Roundup of Campaigns

Cal­i­for­nia: In Los Ange­les, SEIU 721 is behind elec­tions already won at Whit­ti­er Col­lege and Lagu­na Col­lege of Art and Design, and is orga­niz­ing at a num­ber of oth­er art col­leges. How­ev­er, after peti­tions were filed at Loy­ola Mary­mount and Lav­erne Uni­ver­si­ties, the union had to pull out for lack of sup­port. In the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area, SEIU 1021 is behind elec­tions won at the San Fran­cis­co Art Insti­tute, Mills Col­lege, and the Cal­i­for­nia Col­lege of Art, and is orga­niz­ing at oth­er schools as well.

Col­orado: A region­al coali­tion of the AFT and AAUP is guid­ing orga­niz­ing at Col­orado State, Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado at Boul­der, and Front Range Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, among oth­er schools in the Den­ver-Col­orado Springs-Boul­der area. Lack­ing a state col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing law, orga­niz­ers have done leg­isla­tive work around job secu­ri­ty and equal pay for com­mu­ni­ty col­lege faculty.

Con­necti­cut: Region­al SEIU has begun orga­niz­ing from a base in the com­mu­ni­ty colleges.

Flori­da: Not a sin­gle con­tin­gent fac­ul­ty mem­ber has bar­gain­ing rights, except those teach­ing over 50 per­cent time at the Flori­da Uni­ver­si­ty sys­tem. Nonethe­less, there are two ini­tia­tives: the South Flori­da Adjunct Asso­ci­a­tion, which is born out of Broward Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege but is pur­su­ing a region­al strat­e­gy, and a most­ly Inter­net-based group­ing called the Adjunct Fac­ul­ty Union. Both are at the stage of link­ing peo­ple togeth­er and rais­ing awareness.

Illi­nois: In Chica­go, there are unions cov­er­ing con­tin­gents in all the pub­lic sec­tor and at two of the pri­vates, Roo­sevelt and Colum­bia. The NEA/​Illinois Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion effort to orga­nize East-West Uni­ver­si­ty, after years of unfair labor prac­tices, was final­ly aban­doned after the entire­ly con­tin­gent fac­ul­ty was sim­ply replaced. In the past year, a joint AFT-AAUP project suc­ceed­ed in orga­niz­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois, Chica­go, in a sep­a­rate bar­gain­ing unit from tenure-track fac­ul­ty, but bar­gain­ing togeth­er as a joint union. At Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois Cham­paign-Urbana, a unit has been estab­lished rep­re­sent­ing con­tin­gents who work over 50 per­cent, through card check. There was a suc­cess­ful elec­tion at St. Xavier, but it is being chal­lenged on the basis of a reli­gious exemption.

Maine: Two years ago SEIU gained rep­re­sen­ta­tion of com­mu­ni­ty col­lege adjuncts.

Maryland‑D.C.-Virginia: SEIU Local 500 has con­tin­ued orga­niz­ing begun some years ago with George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, and has become the first Metro Strat­e­gy effort to actu­al­ly gain a major­i­ty orga­ni­za­tion, in this case in the Dis­trict of Colum­bia. They gained recog­ni­tion at George­town, Uni­ver­si­ty of the Dis­trict of Colum­bia, Amer­i­can Uni­ver­si­ty, and Howard Uni­ver­si­ty. This was the orig­i­nal SEIU effort that inspired nation­al SEIU to adopt adjunct Metro Strat­e­gy orga­niz­ing as a nation­al cam­paign. The union has also moved into Mary­land, where there is no gen­er­al enabling leg­is­la­tion. There, it rep­re­sents adjuncts at the only com­mu­ni­ty col­lege with a col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing agree­ment, Mont­gomery Col­lege. SEIU Local 500 is build­ing Coali­tion of Aca­d­e­m­ic Labor (CAL) chap­ters at oth­er com­mu­ni­ty col­leges, includ­ing two in Bal­ti­more. It has also orga­nized the pri­vate Mary­land Insti­tute of Art and is orga­niz­ing at George Mason Uni­ver­si­ty in north­ern Virginia.

Mass­a­chu­setts: Boston is where one of the very ear­li­est attempts (1991−2001) at a Metro Strat­e­gy took place. The strat­e­gy has been resus­ci­tat­ed by SEIU and has achieved union vic­to­ries at Leslie, Sim­mons, the School of the Muse­um of Fine Arts, Tufts, and North­east­ern, but lost a heart­break­er by two votes at Bent­ley. Orga­niz­ing con­tin­ues at oth­er pri­vate schools, includ­ing Boston Col­lege and Boston University.

Michi­gan: The pas­sage of a ​“right to work” law has had an impact on adjunct bar­gain­ing units, cre­at­ing con­fu­sion and uncer­tain­ty much like the legal changes in Wis­con­sin did.

Min­neso­ta: In Min­neapo­lis and St. Paul, SEIU won elec­tions at Ham­line Uni­ver­si­ty, lost one at Uni­ver­si­ty of St. Thomas, and pulled a peti­tion at Macalester Col­lege. SEIU is also orga­niz­ing con­tin­gents at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Minnesota.

Mis­souri: SEIU is orga­niz­ing in St. Louis at Lin­den­wood Uni­ver­si­ty, East Cen­tral Col­lege, St. Louis Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, and St. Louis University.

New Hamp­shire: SEIU has won rep­re­sen­ta­tion at Col­lege of New Hamp­shire and Ply­mouth State.

New Mex­i­co: A strug­gle wide­ly pub­li­cized on social media has emerged at North­ern New Mex­i­co Col­lege, where the admin­is­tra­tion has gone rogue against the fac­ul­ty and stu­dents. Anoth­er strug­gle is tak­ing place at San­ta Fe Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege. The union most­ly vis­i­ble here is AAUP.

New York: In New York City, an old cam­paign at Man­hat­tanville Col­lege is still hung up because of the reli­gious objec­tion. Two for-prof­its have been orga­nized in the last two years, one by AFT and one by the News­pa­per Guild/​CWA at Kaplan Lan­guage Schools. In the Capi­tol Dis­trict (Albany), SEIU Local 200 Unit­ed won an elec­tion at the Col­lege of St. Rose (see box) and lost one, against severe man­age­ment oppo­si­tion, at Marist College.

Ohio: Here, the pub­lic sec­tor labor law explic­it­ly excludes part-time fac­ul­ty, but con­tin­gents have nev­er­the­less been orga­niz­ing them­selves under the ban­ner of the Ohio Part-Time Fac­ul­ty Asso­ci­a­tion (OPTFM) and the New Fac­ul­ty Major­i­ty (NFM). Local group­ings have been formed at Lake­land Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege and Cayu­ga Coun­ty Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege in the Cleve­land area. They are try­ing to act like a union while fig­ur­ing out how to move for­ward and whether (and with whom) to affil­i­ate. Also in Ohio, very recent­ly, SEIU has come into the Cleve­land area to begin cir­cu­lat­ing autho­riza­tion cards at three pri­vate high­er ed institutions.

Ore­gon: AFT and AAUP have orga­nized a joint bar­gain­ing unit at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon and are press­ing a cam­paign at Ore­gon State, in Corvallis.

Penn­syl­va­nia: In Philadel­phia, after some ini­tial com­pe­ti­tion, AFT made an agree­ment with SEIU that it would han­dle the Metro Strat­e­gy there, giv­en that all the orga­nized high­er ed fac­ul­ty in the area were in AFT locals already. Under the ban­ner of Unit­ed Aca­d­e­mics, as a region­al orga­ni­za­tion, AFT is orga­niz­ing at Tem­ple, Haver­ford, Philadel­phia Uni­ver­si­ty, Drex­el, and Penn. In Pitts­burgh, the USW-affil­i­at­ed group at Duquesne Uni­ver­si­ty have been pur­su­ing a region­al strat­e­gy which has result­ed in a suc­cess­ful elec­tion at Point Park Uni­ver­si­ty, and con­tin­u­ing efforts at Robert Mor­ris and Uni­ver­si­ty of Pitts­burgh. Duquesne itself has claimed a reli­gious exemp­tion. The effort in Pitts­burgh rep­re­sents one of the health­i­est Metro Strat­e­gy efforts, both because it relies on adjunct lead­er­ship and because it is part of a broad­er com­mu­ni­ty union effort by the USW in Pittsburgh.

Texas: At the Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas in Austin, a state employ­ees union affil­i­at­ed with CWA has grown to sub­stan­tial num­bers and is try­ing to act like a union for adjuncts, although it doesn’t have offi­cial employ­er recog­ni­tion or a col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing law. A peti­tion based in Texas, ​“Adjunct Jus­tice,” call­ing for high­er pay for adjuncts, has drawn thou­sands of signatures.

Ver­mont: In Burling­ton, SEIU has recent­ly filed peti­tions for elec­tions at Burling­ton and Cham­plain Col­leges while con­tin­u­ing to orga­nize at oth­er pri­vate schools. The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ver­mont pro­fes­sion­al tech­ni­cal staff is in the mid­dle of a dri­ve with AFT, which already rep­re­sents fac­ul­ty there.

Wash­ing­ton: In Seat­tle, Adjuncts and Con­tin­gents Togeth­er (ACT), spon­sored by SEIU Local 925, has had three suc­cess­ful elec­tions, at Anti­och Uni­ver­si­ty, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Seat­tle, and Pacif­ic Luther­an. Uni­ver­si­ty of Seat­tle and Pacif­ic Luther­an, both reli­gious-affil­i­at­ed insti­tu­tions, are claim­ing reli­gious exemp­tions. There is also a cam­paign at Gon­za­ga Uni­ver­si­ty in Spokane. AAUP is orga­niz­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington.

Wis­con­sin: Many bar­gain­ing units in Wis­con­sin had been new­ly cer­ti­fied to include con­tin­gent fac­ul­ty at region­al Uni­ver­si­ty of Wis­con­sin cam­pus­es when the recent legal changes restrict­ed bar­gain­ing rights. This has thrown exist­ing bar­gain­ing units into con­fu­sion and their future remains in doubt.

This piece has been reprint­ed with per­mis­sion from Labor Notes.