Today Inside Higher Ed has an article on National Adjunct Walkout Day, scheduled for February 25, 2015. The article mentions the PSC-CUNY, CUNY in general, as well as New York City and State. According to the author, the PSC-CUNY will not endorse the walkout.
“The Professional Staff Congress, the independent faculty union for the City University of New York, isn’t explicitly advising its members not to strike, but it’s not endorsing walkout day, either. Fran Clark, union spokesman, said adjunct faculty members working with the union will organize a petition drive to support the union’s contract campaign and a union membership drive to coincide with the week of Feb. 25.”
I think this is a mistake. I think it is time for the PSC to start taking bigger risks in its advocacy for faculty in general, but especially for adjuncts.
If we continue business as usual, how will we ever achieve the changes that we want? If adjunct salary parity is a goal will the standard negotiation process help us achieve that? In what ways is the PSC involved in the larger national fight for contingent faculty? How are we contributing on a national scale? My perception is that the movement to improve conditions for adjunct faculty is occurring nearly separately from regular union organizing and activity, with occasional overlap. How can we push for change in this area, despite the fact that higher education is awash in curricular and leadership crisis as well? And is it possible that if faculty organize around this pressure point, that other inequities (excessive administrative positions and salaries, top-down governance) would be affected? Whatever the answers to these questions are, it is clear we are not doing enough.
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