Adjunct faculty at St. Charles Community College in the St. Louis area are celebrating their vote to join SEIU on the same day full-time and salaried professors at Boston University filed for their own election.
They are on their way to joining more than 10,000 other faculty members who have united in SEIU over the past three years and will now have a stronger voice in the workplace.
Diana Nash teaches English at SCCC. After the votes had been counted, she said, “Tonight the faculty majority at St. Charles Community College have changed from itinerate workers to empowered professionals. We are joining SEIU Local 1 and the adjunct faculties at St. Louis Community College and Washington University to win the respect that all educators deserve. We look forward to negotiating for job security, higher pay, and benefits,”
This is the third win for the St. Louis Adjunct Action/Faculty Forward campaign in just two years, including Washington University in St. Louis and St. Louis Community College. The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that over three hundred SCCC faculty will be represented by SEIU Local 1.
On Friday, March 4, full-time and salaried non-tenured faculty filed for a union election at Boston University. The election petition marks the latest milestone in the growing faculty union movement, with more than 3,500 Boston-area educators united in a shared effort to improve their profession and the overall quality of higher education through unionization.
“Like so many of my colleagues, I love teaching at Boston University – and I want to do everything I can to improve the learning experience for my students,” said Somy Kim, a Lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Writing Program. “Today’s filing marks an important first step in securing a real voice in the decisions that affect teaching and learning conditions on campus.”
The NLRB election will join more than 275 salaried lecturers and instructors with 800 adjunct colleagues at Boston University – along with unionized faculty on the Northeastern, Tufts, Lesley, Bentley and Brandeis campuses. Part-time lecturers at Tufts signed their first union contract in 2014, followed by a landmark agreement at Lesley University last year. In January, adjuncts at Northeastern reached a three-year agreement that made significant gains around compensation, working conditions and educators’ role in decision-making.
