On a Roll With NYSUT
These days, it seems there’s no stopping the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT). Just months after its successful effort to organize adjuncts at Pace University, the state’s largest education union has brought together the adjunct faculty of Marymount College of Manhattan, who, on May 25, 2006, voted to unionize by an overwhelming 80 percent majority.
According to Peterson’s Four Year Colleges 2006, Marymount presently employs 234 adjuncts, or 74 percent of the college’s total faculty. Founded in 1936 as a two-year college, Marymount now offers a liberal-arts based curriculum and grants bachelor’s degrees in 16 major areas. In spite of its heavy reliance on part-time faculty, however, Marymount’s pay is reputed to be among the lowest in the area. In a June 1, 2006 press release, NYSUT affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), quoted Marymount adjunct Joanne Schultz as saying, “The pay scale is very low….It’s a good idea to have some union representation to help with the bargaining.”
In an interview with the Adjunct Advocate, NYSUT organizer Daniel Esakoff explained that the drive to unionize at Marymount began as part of NYSUT’s ongoing drive to organize adjuncts at other New York State universities, such as Pace and Syracuse. While these efforts were underway, NYSUT organizers learned that adjuncts at the schools were also working at Marymount. Said Esakoff: “[We thought], ‘Okay, let’s follow these people to Marymount.’”
Dance and education adjunct, Lisa Joe Sagolla, remembers receiving a phone call from Esakoff on a Sunday afternoon and talking to him at length about the possibility of unionizing. Sagolla then began to help in the organizing effort, receiving guidance from Esakoff and his NYSUT colleague, Julie Berman. Both Esakoff and Berman, says Sagolla, were attentive to the need to split the work of organizing evenly among adjuncts. As part of her role in gathering support, Sagolla telephoned adjuncts to discuss the unionization efforts. These calls, said Sagolla, were not long—“[It was] a lot of little quick conversations here and there”—but “the people we talked to were clearly the ones who had reservations.”
Sagolla, who has been teaching at the college level for 30 years and at Marymount for nine, holds an Ed.D., and is the author of The Girl Who Fell Down: A Biography of Joan McCracken (Northeastern University, 2003). She also reviews dance and theatre regularly for Back Stage.
“I’m glad to see it happening,” said Sagolla of the union. “Marymount has an extraordinary group of adjuncts.”
Because the union is still in its beginning stages, its specific goals are still being developed.
“We’ve only had one meeting yet,” noted Sagolla, and explained that bargaining goals will become more clearly defined as more meetings take place and the adjuncts who attend them continue to provide input.
Nonetheless, some basic issues are already at the top of the negotiation list, including salary, health benefits, and job security. “Health benefits are something I will definitely push for,” said Sagolla.
