Local & State Instructors at CCV Consider a Union
Citing job security and communication as major concerns, a group of adjunct instructors at the Community College of Vermont are organizing a union.
The union drive is in its beginning stages. It will focus on the approximately 600 to 700 adjunct instructors who teach courses at CCV’s 12 locations across the state, according to lead organizers of the effort.
Concerns outlined by union organizers included a pay scale that reflects classroom preparation and stronger input into the non-traditional school’s policies, such as class size and curriculum.
Adjunct instructors handle between one and three classes a semester, but there is no system in place to reimburse teachers for preparation work for cancelled classes or to provide explanations for reduced classloads given to instructors, according to Julie Waters, who has taught at the Springfield campus since 2001.
“If you are lucky, you’ll get as many classes as you want,” Waters said. “But I’ve seen instructors who normally get three classes reduced to one with no explanation.
“You spend all this time preparing for a class, but you don’t really know it won’t be canceled until a week before it begins,” she said. “There is no safety net.”
Unlike the four state
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