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Few modern unions have done more outside hiring than the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), America's second largest labor organization. Beginning in the mid-1970s and continuing unabated today, SEIU and its local affiliates have employed tens of thousands of non-members as organizers, servicing reps, researchers, education specialists, PR people, and staffers of other kinds. While most unions hire and promote largely from within (i.e. from the ranks of their working members), SEIU has always cast its net wider. It has welcomed energetic refugees from other unions, promising young student activists, former community organizers, ex-environmentalists, Democratic Party campaign operatives, and political exiles from abroad. Many, if not most, of SEIU's outside hires no longer work for the union, in part because of its penchant for "management by churn." This means that its network of distinguished alumni today is far larger than its current national and local workforce, which is not small. And not all of these SEIU alums have fond memories of their tour of duty in purple, the union's signature color. For an institution that demands great loyalty from its staff, SEIU is not known for its reciprocal attachment to those who do its bidding. Ex-SEIUers include many dedicated, hard-working organizers who were useful for a while, until they were not. Jane McAlevey, author of Raising Expectations (And Raising Hell): My Decade Fighting For the Labor Movement (Verso Books, 2012) even became a member of the SEIU national executive before she too was cast aside. Her resulting fury, or political frustration, is reflected in many parts of her new memoir about being undermined and driven out

"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"

Adjunct professors at Seattle University who hope to organize in affiliation with the Service Employees International Union got the green light from their local National Labor Relations Board. The announcement didn't come as a surprise to adjuncts there, who said the decision was similar to the board's regional office ruling last year in favor of adjuncts who wish to form an SEIU-affiliated union at Pacific Lutheran University. Ballots from that subsequent union election have been impounded, however, as the national labor board weighs the university's challenge to the ruling - namely that its religious affiliation puts it outside board jurisdiction. Michael Ng, an adjunct professor of languages and literature at both institutions, said organizers expect Seattle University to pose a similar challenge to the local board's decision

The following appeared on Bostonglobe.com, Apr 12, 2014 Adjunct faculty members are the working stiffs of academia. They can hold their own with tenured faculty on subjects ranging from analytic geometry to literary criticism. But they work for short money, often in the $3,000-$6,000 range per course. This is red meat for the Service Employees International Union, which has mounted successful efforts to unionize adjunct faculty at private universities, including American University and George Washington University. The current "Adjunct Action'' is focused on Northeastern University, with Boston University up next.

Here's a TV report. It looks like this affects the entire Maine public college system. Here's the Chronicle story: http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/u-of-southern-maine-president-facing-budget-cuts-proposes-faculty-layoffs I googled and it appears the NEA has a system wide union for the full-time faculty. And the AFT has a system wide union for the part-time faculty. Here's a story: http://mainecampus.com/2012/01/19/part-time-faculty-union-to-enter-mediation-with-system-over-contract/ Who is above Provost Stevenson? Cordially, Keith Vanessa replied: The CGEU FB page picked up a Common Dreams link, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/21-7 So I shared that on several FB pages along with alert request, Chronicle and local paper links -- plus a link to the U Southern Maine FB in case anyone wanted to leave a message. https://www.facebook.com/precarious.faculty.rising/posts/10202254592379137 While there, I saw a notice about a "Transition Program" http://usm.maine.edu/transition described as moving USM into the future, providing "quality, affordable" education while addressing "fiscal situation"

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.

"Yesterday, Broward College adjunct professor Evan Rowe fired a warning signal when he announced via an article published in New Times that he is starting a union for adjunct faculty and may organize a strike. Adjuncts make up about 60 percent of BC's teaching staff, and Rowe says the max he can earn per year teaching a full load is $16,000. Because of scheduling this term, he's been assigned only a half load, meaning he'll make $8,000. Last night, the college issued a statement suggesting that it may indeed raise adjuncts' pay this summer. The statement also said the college hoped to avoid a strike and pointed out that Florida law makes it illegal for employees of public institutions to strike. The Florida constitution states that "no public employee or employee organization may participate in a strike against a public employer by instigating or supporting, in any manner, a strike.""

"Yesterday, Broward College adjunct professor Evan Rowe fired a warning signal when he announced via an article published in New Times that he is starting a union for adjunct faculty and may organize a strike. Adjuncts make up about 60 percent of BC's teaching staff, and Rowe says the max he can earn per year teaching a full load is $16,000. Because of scheduling this term, he's been assigned only a half load, meaning he'll make $8,000. Last night, the college issued a statement suggesting that it may indeed raise adjuncts' pay this summer. The statement also said the college hoped to avoid a strike and pointed out that Florida law makes it illegal for employees of public institutions to strike. The Florida constitution states that "no public employee or employee organization may participate in a strike against a public employer by instigating or supporting, in any manner, a strike.""

Eastern Michigan University (EMU) in Ypsilanti, Michigan issued layoff notices to ten of its eleven full-time non-tenured faculty in the College of Education. Some have been with the university for decades. The layoffs are effective for the fall semester of 2014. No part-time faculty were laid off, reflecting the administration's alignment with a national trend toward less experienced, lower-salaried faculty. Those faculty who did not receive the layoff notice reported seeing the writing on the wall in terms of increased class sizes, increased work loads, and worsening conditions. .... Last month Equality for Contingent Faculty: Overcoming the two-tier system by Keith Hoeller was published. In it Hoeller, longtime adjunct professor of philosophy at Green River Community College in Washington, states, "one million professors now teach off the tenure track and make up 75 percent of all college professors. "Throughout the country, college administrators, often with the collaboration of academic unions, have gone to great lengths to keep their increasing numbers of adjunct faculty secret from students, parents, legislators, accreditors, foundations, and the public." Hoeller chronicles a "new academic labor system under which the explosion of graduate students and the abuse and overuse of adjunct and non-tenure-track faculty is the most prominent characteristic of a new employment strategy sometimes referred to as the two- or multi-tiered labor system.

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?

"And if you are contingent faculty who are paid a pittance and have no security, it's time to join the movement to unionize adjuncts. Actually, if you are tenure track you should also join the movement to support contingent faculty members in their efforts to secure fair labor practices. Organize, organize, organize. "