Group items tagged

Since the issue of strikes has come up several times, I thought the following recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic would be of some importance to many on this list. The list defines major strikes as involving 1,000 or more workers, and lists the number for each year since 1947. Last year (2013) there were 15, though none appear to involve teachers or professors; in 1947 there were 270. In 1980, the year Ronald Reagan ran for President, major work stoppages dropped below 200 and have stayed below since then. I believe the Professional Air Traffic Controller's Strike was in 1981. In 1982 the number dropped below 100, below 50 in 1987, and has stayed below 22 since 2002. A good recent book on unions is called "What Unions No Longer Do" by a sociologist names Jake Rosenfeld who has used good documentation. Another good book on this topic is called "Reviving the Strike," by Joe Burns.

A Special Report from the Center for Community College Student Engagement. This center's advisory board is dominated by college administrators. While the sample size is large, this study is based on self-report surveys and "also draws from 32 focus groups conducted with part-time faculty, full-time faculty, administrators, and staff at community colleges across the country. Colleges participating in the focus groups represent a cross-section of U.S. community colleges-large and small; urban and rural; and diverse in terms of geography, presence of unions, and students served."  It has a number of correlations and then speculates about what they mean. It does not appear to have controlled for all the possible variables involved. Is it a scientific research study or an amalgam of people's perceptions of part-time faculty?

"As lecturers in the UK prepare for the UCU's marking boycott, US campuses are experiencing a surge of unionisation According to census figures, union membership in the US has fallen from 28 per cent to a record low of 11 per cent in less than 50 years. And if struggling unions can't even find new members in the automotive industry, on which they once famously had an iron grip, where can they. In universities, apparently. As American unions face embarrassing setbacks elsewhere, union activity at US universities is raging among full-time faculty in Illinois, part-time faculty in Washington DC and Boston, graduate research assistants in Michigan and even student athletes"

In growing economics department, professors lament increase in classes taught by adjuncts "I've had lots of students here who have nothing but adjuncts," professor emeritus Herman Stekler said. "It really shortchanges the students and isn't good for their education." To improve adjuncts' teaching quality, full-time faculty could make an effort to monitor their lesson plans or exams, Boulier said.