Category: NEW Tentative Contract Agreement

An Adjunct Couple Speaks for Contract Ratification

Our names are Canan and James. We’re partners and we both teach as adjunct faculty in the Department of Sociology. As adjunct faculty at Temple University, we deserve to be recognized as workers who contribute to the university’s mission to provide excellence in teaching to Temple’s diverse and engaged student population. That’s why we’re excited to be members of TAUP and ratify our first-ever union contract with an overwhelming YES  vote.

We all know too well that adjunct labor and the particular difficulties of adjunct life often remain hidden. In many cases, full-time faculty have never met the adjunct faculty in their own departments who teach a large portion of the classes and keep departments running.  Most students don’t really know if their instructor is an adjunct, and if they do, what that means for our day-to-day life. Many don’t  know what a low percentage of the tuition they pay actually goes toward paying their adjunct instructors.

Ratifying this contract will give adjuncts an immediate pay bump from $1300/credit to $1425, and another raise next year to $1500. It provides 50% and 25% health care subsidies to adjuncts.  It also lays the groundwork for adjuncts to build meaningful job security, seniority, and a promotion structure into future contracts. This contract shines light on our conditions as precarious adjunct labor, and recognizes adjuncts not simply as miscellaneous faces in the crowd, but as significant workers who put our time and energy into educating Temple’s diverse student population.

Uniting with full-time faculty in the bargaining process provides space for us to share our mutual concerns and use our strength in numbers to win. By working under a contract, adjunct faculty can begin to work towards obtaining the rights to a basic and decent livelihood that all university workers deserve. All members of TAUP will have the opportunity to ratify this contract between September 25 – 29 in an online vote. Add your name here if you plan on helping our first contract pass with an overwhelming YES vote.

In solidarity,
Canan Tanir

James Parisot

Adjunct Instructors, Sociology

Ratifying the Tentative Agreement: What You Need to Know

Now that the Executive Committee has approved the Tentative Agreement between TAUP and Temple, it needs to be ratified by our membership to take effect.   The ratification vote will take place electronically between September 25th and 29th.

 

As our Constitution and Bylaws set forth, the following groups are eligible to vote:

1)      All dues-paying full-time faculty, librarians, and academic professionals.

2)     All adjuncts who have signed a membership card AND who have taught at least one semester since Spring 2017, including this semester.  In other words, adjuncts who have signed cards and are teaching this term OR who taught Summer 17 OR Spring 17.

By September 13th, we will be sending emails to those eligible to vote, confirming their eleigiblity.  (If we have a non-Temple email, we will be using that one.)   If you believe you are eligible to vote but do not receive an email by this date, please let TAUP know (taupaft@gmail.com).  

We will also be reaching out over email and over the phone to our members in order to inform them of the details of this agreement and to listen to their questions and concerns.  We have compiled a FAQ for adjuncts, informed in part by questions they have already asked us.

 We will be holding Town Halls for members and non-members to answer any questions you have about the Tentative Agreement:

–T 9/12 11:30-1:30     Anderson 821 (Women’s Studies Lounge)

–W 9/13 12:00-2:00   Paley Library Lecture Hall, 021 (Ground Floor)

–R 9/14  11:30-1:30    Weigley Room, Gladfelter 914

–F 9/15  12:00-2:00    Paley Library Lecture Hall, 021 (Ground Floor)

 

 

–M 9/18 3:00-5:00      Anderson 005

–T 9/19 2:30-4:30        Paley Library Lecture Hall, 021 (Ground Floor)

–W 9/20 8:30-10:30   Weigley Room, Gladfelter 914

–R 9/21 4:30-6:30        Paley Library Lecture Hall, 021 (Ground Floor)

 

 

We have chosen these times to reach as broad a group as we can, and we hope to see you there.  Please contact TAUP with any questions at taupaft@gmail.com.

 

Steve Newman, ​President

Jennie Shanker, Vice President 

Norma Corrales-Martin, Treasurer

​ ​

 

FAQs for Adjuncts: Tentative Agreement

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