Michigan State Nontenure-Track Faculty Vote for AFT

by James Parks, Jun 1, 2009

Nontenure-track faculty at Michigan State University (MSU), who work on year-to-year contracts, now have more job security after voting last week for a union. The 650 full-time and part-time workers now will be represented by the Union of Nontenure-Track Faculty/AFT.

Job security, health insurance and wages are the top concerns of the new union members. Says sociologist Ralph Pyle, who has been teaching at MSU for 12 years:

Although I have been treated well in my department, I feel that I would have more peace of mind if I knew that my job was secure.

“What matters to me most is having a voice,” says Naoko Wake, a visiting assistant professor in MSU’s Lyman Briggs college.

 Now we will be real citizens of the university community.

This is the second time in four months that nontenure-track faculty at a Michigan university have joined a union affiliated with AFT Michigan. In February, part-time faculty at Western Michigan University (WMU) formed a new union, the Professional Instructors Organization.

“Salary and job security are among the big issues for many part-time instructors,” said Karl Schrock, an adjunct instructor in the School of Music.

As educators we are committed to our students and this university, yet we are often left to struggle with stagnant wages, few resources, and undue hardships created by the constant uncertainty of future appointments.

Part-time instructors at WMU are employed on a semester-by-semester basis, although many of them have taught at the university for 10, 20 and even 30 years.

Other nontenure-track employees at the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, Henry Ford Community College and Wayne State University voted for unions in recent years.

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