Free Choice and Adjunct Equity
by Renee McGarry
In a news conference on Friday, January 30, Mayor Bloomberg announced what many are referring to as his doomsday budget. This included one billion dollars in budget cuts, the core of which calls for laying off over 23,000 city workers. According to Bloomberg, the majority of these workers will be New York City public school teachers — as many as 15,000 of them may lose their jobs as the city faces an ongoing budget crunch with little to no help from the state. In addition to these lay-offs, Bloomberg expects to dramatically increase sales tax in the city and also to ask property owners to return their $400 tax rebates.
Not surprisingly, the city (and state) is again looking to balance their budget on the back of workers, explicitly stating that they need givebacks from municipal unions in order to prevent these layoffs. If municipal unions agree, workers will at the very least be expected to pay more for their health care, and it isn’t difficult to imagine what else they will be asked to do. Not only are we faced with the possibility of these givebacks, and an increase in sales tax, but we will also suffer a dramatic increase in MTA fares, and whatever else the city and its agencies throws in our direction.
In times like these anti-union rhetoric looms large. In its article about the proposed budget cuts and layoffs on January 30, the New York Daily News mildly referred to a lack of cooperation from “stubborn unions” throughout the city. The New York Post wasn’t far behind. But union-bashing doesn’t just exist in these conservative venues. In fact, we can see it in the comments sections of the New York Times website, on Gothamist, and in practically every other news source. Public employees are regularly referred to as “freeloaders,” “overpaid,” and “lazy”: these are among the tamest of insults.
Unfortunately, these feelings about unions, unionization, and union members are not limited to the local stage, nor are they limited to some abstract internet personalities hurling insults in our direction. The Employee Free Choice Act, supported by President Obama while he was in the Senate but notably absent from his economic stimulus package, is at the center of many of these anti-union arguments. Supporters of the bill herald it as one of the greatest changes to labor legislation since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 and argue that it would make it much easier for workers to unionize, ostensibly eliminating a multi-tiered and possibly years-long certifications process by eliminating the need for secret ballots.
Critics of the act argue that by eliminating secret ballots, unions will be more likely to bully workers into signing on. (It is important to note that the act does not eliminate the possibility of complicated secret ballot voting but allows for the additional option of certifying a union after a majority of employees sign union authorization cards.) The rhetoric surrounding this act has escalated beyond that of stubbornness and free-loading. On a conference call with other CEOS, the CEO of the notoriously anti-labor Home Depot referred to the act as “the end of civilization as we know it.” In an interview on the Fox News Network on Saturday, January 31, a top editor at Forbes magazine called the bill “pro-slavery.” The scope and outlandishness of these claims can seem shocking but it’s not at all surprising.
Of course this bill makes CEOs nervous. Studies show that union members have 14% higher pay than those who aren’t unionized and are 28% more likely to have employer-paid health care. The Employee Free Choice Act will cost companies a great deal of money if it passes. But what’s troubling is when we hear similar arguments in our day-to-day lives.
As adjuncts and fellows, we have the opportunity to do something about this. We can sign union cards and become vocal and active members in a large municipal union. If you haven’t yet signed a union card, now is the time to do it.
Living in times of economic insecurity, with our fates in the hands of union leadership, we need to let them know what we are and aren’t willing to do. Are we willing to pay more for the same health care, especially having just won access to it in January? Are we willing to teach fewer classes of more students? Are we willing to see our friends get laid off and their students added to our sections?
Signing a union card and voting in union elections is not the only way to be active in this fight; we also have the opportunity to be vocal and pro-union in our everyday lives. From March 30 – April 3, the Adjunct Project is sponsoring CUNY Equity Week, a university-wide event that offers the opportunity for all faculty members to discuss the plight of contingent workers in the CUNY system. During this week we are asking faculty to make a coordinated effort to incorporate information on adjunct teaching conditions and the impact these have on our students.
There are a lot of ways you can incorporate this information into your classroom. You may have a class discussion, a persuasive letter-writing exercise, a statistical analysis of adjunct and full-time wages for the same workload, or an extra-credit assignment to find a link between course materials and adjunct labor. Adjuncts teach nearly 60% of all classes at CUNY, and oftentimes students are unaware of this, or that the position of an adjunct is radically different than that of full-time faculty members.
Talk to you students about what it means: how does it impact your relationships with them? Your ability to teach your courses to the best of your ability? Your working conditions? If you can’t have office hours because they are unpaid or there is no location for you to do so, let your students know. Alerting students to these situations makes them more aware of how the ways in which adjuncts are treated unequally impacts their education.
Set aside a class session or two, or less time if you like, to talk about these inequalities in your classroom. Attend one of our training sessions and learn what you can say and how to say it. Allow someone else to come into your classroom to discuss the role of contingent workers in the CUNY system. Just starting a conversation can make a world of difference and can call attention to just how different a university we would have with more full-time faculty members and greater opportunities.
Most importantly, CUNY Equity Week is your week. Do what you want to do in your classrooms and beyond. Be creative, and let us know your ideas so we can share them.
If adding just one more thing to your schedule is making your mind spin, we also invite you to join us for a special session on yoga for students and adjuncts on Friday, February 20 at 6pm (suggested donation $5). A certified yoga teacher will help us create a toolbox of coping mechanisms for when our back hurts from writing our dissertation all day, our head hurts from teaching, and whatever else hurts from whatever else we do. We look forward to seeing you there!
