Mills College Adjunct Professors Win Best in Nation Job Protections
http://brokeassstuart.com/blog/2016/03/22/mills-adjunct-professors-win-best-in-the-nation-job-protections/
Mills College adjunct professors ratified their first ever three-year agreement on Friday, March 18. The new agreement makes significant progress in job security, recruitment & retention of quality professors, and fair compensation....
“Our work has been accomplished in the face of escalating reports of budget deficits and calls for reduced spending from the administration,” said Stephanie Young, bargaining team member and creative writing Adjunct Professor at Mills College. “At one low point during our eighteen months at the bargaining table, we were confronted with $350,000 in proposed cuts. With invaluable support from across the campus and broader community, we were able to work with the Interim Provost to reach a fair contract”...
The ratified agreement ends an 18-month effort by more than 200 adjunct faculty at Mills College, who voted to join Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021 Faculty Forward Campaign in May 2014. In the following months, elected officials, community leaders, students and alumni joined part and fulltime faculty in a hard-hitting campaign to improve teaching and learning conditions at the women’s college campus in Oakland....
Friday’s settlement marks the first union contract ratified by adjunct professors among the five private Bay Area colleges newly organized by the SEIU 1021: Saint Mary’s College, Dominican College, California College of the Arts, and the San Francisco Art Institute. All of colleges listed are currently in contract negotiations. In February and March, Holy Names University and Notre Dame de Namur petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a union election to join SEIU 1021 and the Faculty Forward movement of adjunct professors addressing the crisis in higher education.
