Harper College Adjuncts Hold Union Vote

HARPER COLLEGE’S NEARLY 500 part-time faculty members will hold an organizational vote in March, with two unions vying to represent them.

The part-time faculty members are being courted by both the Cook County College Teachers Union Local 1600, affiliated with the Illinois Federation of Teachers; and the Illinois Education Association.

The election will be held on campus March 16 and 17, overseen by the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board.

A union could negotiate for part-time faculty members a say in their compensation and scheduling, and bargain for health care and other benefits.

Local 1600 and IEA each had to get signed authorization cards from 30 percent of Harper’s part-time faculty to even hold the election, so union officials believe teachers will choose to organize.

“I don’t know of any case when adjunct (faculty members) had a chance to vote for representation that they voted for no union,” said IEA union organizer Tom Suhrbur.

Local 1600 officials could not be reached Friday.

Part-time teachers have unionized at College of DuPage, Elgin Community College, Oakton College, City Colleges of Chicago, Roosevelt College and Columbia College. Part-time faculty members at Triton College in River Grove will decide in late February whether they want to unionize or not.

Suhrbur worked to establish a part-time faculty union at Harper about a decade ago. It died when the college won an appellate court judgment over who was eligible to vote to create the bargaining unit.

Over the last few years, however, the requirements have been relaxed. Teachers who teach as few as three credit hours per semester are now eligible to vote.

Harper officials said Friday they don’t want to comment on the union vote.

“It’s really not the administration’s place to comment on whether our adjunct faculty should join a union or not,” said Harper communications director Phil Burdick. “They have to hear all the sides and make their own decision.”

When the possibility first re-emerged last fall, however, college officials were wary of higher costs.

In the fall semester Harper offered 2,200 credit classes, nearly half taught by adjunct teachers. By using part-timers, Harper saves about $8.8 million over the fall and spring semesters, officials estimate.

For the 2003-2004 school year, part-time teachers at Harper earn between $1,800 and $2,100 for a three-credit class. The college pays about $6,000 per three-credit class to full-time teachers.

Harper’s full-time faculty, the professional technical employees, the custodial and maintenance workers and the security employee group are all unionized. Local 1600 represents Harper’s full-time faculty, and the IEA has the professional technical group. The full-time faculty union went on strike in fall 2002 in a dispute over compensation and health care benefits.

Frank Brooks, a part-time faculty member at Harper and Roosevelt University, said adjunct teachers personally have good relationships with full-time faculty. But Brooks, an IEA supporter, said the adjunct faculty’s professional interests differ. He said, for example, part-time faculty often get bumped from scheduled classes because the college gives full-time faculty and retirees preference.

“We are at the bottom of the ladder,” Brooks said.