In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times  column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

Dear Adjunct Professor Colleagues,

Over the last decade, adjunct faculty at Camden County College have become increasingly concerned at the direction the administration is taking the institution: addition or cancellation of teaching appointments at the last minute, lack of transparency in dealings with non-tenured faculty and students, as well as the reduction of adjunct faculty are just a few of the conditions that CCC faculty have been unable to effectively resist without representation. We have no real job security, and in many cases, no clear program for advancement, despite the fact that some of us have been teaching at CCC for years or even decades.

CCC depends on a large group of highly trained, committed, non-tenure track faculty like us. While our official job titles vary by school and department – Lecturer, Assistant, Associate or Full Professor (Teaching), Adjunct, Visiting Faculty, Professor (Teaching) – we are, all of us, contingent faculty. Therefore, our employment status remains tenuous, which results in our academic freedom being compromised.

For those of us teaching as adjunct faculty with multi-year contracts, our contracts state that we are not eligible to be considered for tenure benefits, and that non-tenure-track appointments are subject to early termination, while those of us who have semester-to-semester contracts can regularly expect to be unemployed every summer. Regardless of the number of years we’ve been employed by CCC, we can never depend on the job security our tenured colleagues enjoy.

And it’s not just job security. As contingent faculty, we’re paid a fraction of what tenured and tenure-track faculty earn – even when teaching the same courses, have reduced access to professional activities, and are disenfranchised from full participation in faculty governance. It is hard to plan one’s life without a clear expectation, much less guarantee, of continued employment. As at-will employees, we lack the pay, benefits and privileges, access to campus resources, and professional growth opportunities our tenure-track colleagues have. Now, CCC Adjunct faculty are standing up for dignity and a voice in our working conditions.

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