INFORMATION FOR ADJUNCTS REGARDING THE UPCOMING RATIFICATION VOTE
After 15 months of negotiating, TAUP reached a Tentative Contract Agreement with Temple. Our Executive Board voted to pass it on to the membership for ratification. Below are answers to commonly asked questions about the contract:
AM I ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE RATIFICATION VOTE?
To participate in the ratification vote, you must be a TAUP member in good standing. You also must either be teaching this semester, or have taught at least one full or partial semester (including summer) during or since the Spring 2017 term. That work needs to have carried a total of 2 credits or more where you were given the primary responsibility of teaching. If you were hired to perform research or provide instruction as artist-in-residence or clinical adjunct faculty, you must have worked for 10 hours per week or more.
For contract ratification, only members in good standing can vote.
- Full time faculty, librarians or academic professionals are members in good standing if they pay monthly dues.
- Since adjuncts don’t have a contract yet, an adjunct member in good standing is someone who signed a membership card. Adjuncts don’t pay dues until they are covered by the contract.
Are you sure that you’ve signed a membership card? The card is different from the petitions that people signed when TAUP was fighting to include adjuncts in the bargaining unit. As we move closer to the vote, we will be sending an email out to everyone who has signed a membership card to verify their status. We’ll also confirm with the people who are not on our membership list, and will give enough advance notice for someone to join if they’d like.
WHEN WILL I BE COVERED BY THE TERMS IN THE CONTRACT?
If the contract is ratified, it is retroactive from the beginning of the current semester. The one exception for coverage is for adjuncts who are currently teaching their first semester. Though you are eligible to vote if you have signed a card, Temple refused to include adjuncts under the terms of the bargaining unit until after they have worked for the university for one term. That means you will be eligible to be in the union the next semester you teach, provided it is within the next 4 semesters. After four semesters of not working at Temple, you will have to work for one semester again to re-establish eligibility and be covered by the union contract.
WHEN WILL THE NEW RAISES BEGIN?
Temple has agreed that the raises will be given to adjuncts at the first paycheck after ratification. If you are in your first semester, the university has not made it clear to us whether they will offer you the raise this semester, or if you’ll have to wait until your second term.
WHAT’S THIS ABOUT ADJUNCT HEALTH BENEFITS?
Temple has offered adjuncts subsidies for health benefits in the past, though it has been either been too difficult for most adjuncts to qualify or to afford. Here’s a link to the current health benefits offered by Temple to adjuncts:
https://www.temple.edu/hr/faculty/adjuncts/healthinsurance.htm
If the tentative agreement is ratified, all adjuncts in the bargaining (after their first semester) will be eligible, and we hope the increase in pay will help to make these benefits more affordable.
IS VOTING ANONYMOUS?
No one will know how you voted, and only TAUP officers will have access to information about who voted. Since we need to insure that eligible voters are voting only once, we need to have some personal information. That information is not associated with the vote you cast (for or against ratification). The information about who voted will only be available to TAUP officers to insure the integrity of the vote.
HOW CAN I BECOME A MEMBER?
You can go to https://taup.org/membership/ and click on the application link to print out the form
It can then be scanned and emailed back to taupaft@gmail.com, or you can snail mail or walk it to our office:
Temple Association of University Professionals
1301 Cecil B. Moore Avenue
Ritter Hall Annex, Room 721 (004-15)
Philadelphia, PA 19122-6091
WHEN THE CONTRACT IS RATIFIED, WHAT WILL ADJUNCT DUES BE?
Here’s what it will look like for someone teaching a 3-credit class at the new minimum rate of $1425 per credit ($4275 per semester):
Fall semester dues: total $14.01 per paycheck (x 4 paychecks = $56.04 for the semester).
Spring semester dues: total $12.83 per paycheck (x 5 paychecks = $64.15 for the semester).
.55% per paycheck (gross amount) goes to TAUP, plus
$8.13 per paycheck is split between the AFL-CIO, AFTPA and the AFT National.
HOW DOES TAUP COLLECT DUES?
We will not have automatic dues deduction from payroll for a year since Temple needs time to set the system up, so we will be asking people to send in their dues. Details for this will be sent if the contract is ratified.
WHO DO I CONTACT IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS?
Call or email the TAUP office at taupaft@gmail.com / 215-763-2287