After Four Years, Pace University Faculty Get First Contract

by James Parks, Oct 31, 2008

Here’s another example of why America’s workers need the Employee Free Choice Act.

This week, the adjunct faculty at Pace University in New York City and on Long Island finally has a tentative contract—after four years of stalling by university management.

Four years.  

In May 2004, the professors voted 308–165 to form the Union of Adjunct Faculty at Pace (UAFP), an affiliate of AFT. Their key issues included wages, a lack of benefits and a lack of respect. As Pace Physics professor Chris Williams puts it:

I would starve to death if I had to rely on my wages from Pace.

The Employee Free Choice Act proposed legislation that would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions, provide for mediation in first contract disputes after 90 days and, if an agreement is not reached, go to binding arbitration. 

Studies show 44 percent of newly certified unions fail to get a first contract. So even when workers surmount all the obstacles and succeed in forming a union, employers often deny them the benefits of collective bargaining. The Employee Free Choice Act would remedy this problem by allowing either side to call in federal mediators.

Employers who drag out negotiations may hope the new union members give up. Fortunately, as Craig Smith writes on AFT’s FACE (Faculty and College Excellence) blog, the adjunct faculty was determined to stay the course despite the university attempts to drag out contract talks.

UAFP formed a union to change how adjunct faculty were treated at Pace and they weren’t backing down.  They were going to keep at it until they could establish an agreement that laid the foundation for the long-term improvement of adjunct faculty working conditions. 

In a message to members, UAFP President John Pawlowski says the tentative contract is a step toward the respect the adjunct faculty sought when it voted for a union:

There were a myriad of reasons adjunct faculty formed a union, including a desire for increased pay, hope for better job security, and a need for affordable health insurance. 

As we all know, the work we do as adjunct faculty has been institutionally undervalued for decades. We hope that besides bringing us important improvements in wages and benefits and job security, this contract, in and of itself, will be the first step in increasing the professional respect that is so long overdue for adjunct faculty.

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