Adjunct faculty at California’s College of the Canyons vote to affiliate with the AFT

After nearly two years of legal wrangling, part-time faculty at College of the Canyons finally got what they wanted–the chance to choose which union would represent them. Today, in a landslide vote (208 to 41), part-timers selected the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) as their exclusive bargaining agent.

Many thought this day would never come. After all, the district had done everything in its power to keep its part-time faculty from choosing AFT. First, in the middle of a legal carding campaign by AFT in fall 2001, COC concocted a scheme to force the part-timers, without their knowledge or consent, into the CTA full-timers union. For 25 years, CTA had staunchly refused to let part-timers into their union. Part-Time Faculty United–AFT responded by filing an unfair labor practice charge against the college, and the battle was joined. Finally, after two state decisions that went against them–by the Public Employment Relations Board and the State Court of Appeals–the college gave up and stopped fighting the election.

In the meantime, leaders of the would-be part-time faculty union were sorely challenged. As vulnerable part-time employees with no continuing contract and no tenure, they evoked the public and private anger of COC administrators and found their classes cut or removed altogether. Friendly department chairs told part-time activists that the administration had ordered them to remove their classes and give them to full-time faculty.

But the part-time faculty leadership persisted, and, in spring 2002, they collected signed support cards from a majority of part-timers – an action that usually triggers an immediate election. The college continued funneling taxpayer dollars into costly litigation against their own faculty. COC part-time teaching ranks continued to be culled, and the election was delayed while the legal process worked slowly. The fledgling union leaders refused to give up.

“We stood for one overriding principle: dignity and respect,” said Michael Ward, leader of the AFT organizing committee and part-time history instructor. “But there were also five main issues part-time faculty agreed needed to be addressed: equal pay for equal work, paid office hours, medical benefits, job security/rehire rights, and a fair dispute resolution mechanism decided by a neutral third party.”

The ranks of part-time faculty have grown at College of the Canyons over the last decades, as the college pursued a strategy of hiring fewer full-time faculty in favor of cheaper, part-time faculty. Now, part-timers comprise two-thirds of all COC faculty.

Part-time faculty must have the same academic qualifications as full-time faculty, yet they are paid only 35 percent of what full-timers get for teaching the same class. Although they are expected to prepare for classes, grade papers, and consult outside class with students, they are not paid for it. And if part-timers have medical needs, not only do they not receive paid medical benefits, they are refused the right to buy into the district’s medical insurance using their own money–and are even forbidden from treatment at the on-campus health center.

AFT national representative Linda Cushing says, “I have never seen a district fight so long and hard using public funds to prevent their faculty from exercising their free choice to select their own union.”

Ward adds, “Many part-timers have taught for the district for 15 or 20 years or more, semester after semester–and this is how the college treats them? The two years of extended illegal actions by the district have harmed many part-time instructors irreparably. They’ve lost classes, lost pay, lost benefits, and many of them have lost jobs because it’s taken so long for us to get the protection of our own union that could have shamed or compelled the district to recognize our Constitutional right of due process.”

Now that Part-Time Faculty United–AFT has won the election, Ward says the next six months will be very busy.

“Our number one goal is to get to the negotiating table where as legal equals we can address the issues of primary concern to part-time faculty. In order to get there before the end of the spring semester, we will immediately constitute an Interim Executive Board to lead the union through its initial membership drive and contract development. The more members we have, the stronger we will be at the bargaining table. And, the contract development process will be an open, spirited, and democratic one, where part-timers will participate in meetings, phone calls, emails, snail mail, and every kind of process possible so they can weigh in on exactly what our first comprehensive contract proposal should be to the district.”

“College of the Canyons part-timers are paid poorly compared to other part-timers in surrounding AFT districts,” declares Cushing. “COC likes to call itself Camelot, but that romantic view will become increasingly difficult to sustain without the ability to keep the best part-time faculty around.” She adds, “While the district was busy patting itself on the back, they forgot to take care of their majority faculty–the part-timers.”

Ward agrees: “It took 25 years to create our problems and they won’t get solved overnight. But we will settle for nothing less than substantive progress on our issues. And, frankly, we’re hoping for a new attitude of cooperation and professionalism from the district. If they start treating us with the respect we deserve, we’re willing to meet them half way and get on to some mutual problem solving. We’re saying it’s about time.”

For more information, contact:
Michael Ward, President, Part-Time Faculty United – AFT, (805) 217-0703 cell

Chuck Whitten, Vice President, PTFU-AFT, (661) 433-1678 cell

Linda Cushing, AFT National Representative, (714)743-7220 cell