Tag: contract

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

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

A Tentative Agreement/First Contract for Adjuncts

After 15 months of negotiations, Temple’s Administration and TAUP have reached a Tentative Agreement for a first contract for adjunct faculty, expiring in October, 2019.  Approved by TAUP’s Executive Committee, it will now go to our members for ratification.  The date for the ratification vote will be set soon, and we will shortly be sending out procedures for ratification.

Three important points about this agreement:  1) adjuncts have won significant raises and protections; 2)a one-year extension of the full-time faculty contract means in Academic Year 2018-19 there is a provision for the same raise as in 2017-18 with no other changes to the contract; 3) going forward, TAUP will bargain as a united union, part-time and full-time.

Some key details are listed below.  First, it is important to explain why we have agreed to a two-year contract for adjuncts with a one-year extension of the current full-time contract.  This was the result of the Administration’s pushing for a three-year adjunct deal and treating it essentially as a separate contract.  This runs counter to the rightful finding of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board that we are ONE union and would also weaken us at the bargaining table by forcing us to negotiate at separate times, undercutting our solidarity.  Also, after over a year of negotiations, the Administration understandably did not want to bargain over adjunct conditions again in the coming Spring along with the full-time contract.   A two-year adjunct contract with a one-year extension for the full-time faculty  was the best way to resolve this conflict.  It means that our entire unit will be able to bargain together in 2019 and act together more effectively.

The contract offers substantial gains for ALL our members and puts TAUP in a stronger position as we look ahead.   Although this contract, like all contracts, does not include everything we hoped for, it lays the foundation for a future where we can make those gains. And it immediately establishes gains for ALL our members once ratified.  (To find out if you meet the eligibility requirements for the Bargaining Unit as an adjunct, please see Article 2 of the Tentative Agreement.)

  • Adjunct salaries:
    • In Academic Year 2017-18, the minimum salary for adjuncts increases from $1300 to $1425 per credit hour.
    • In Academic Year 2018-19, the minimum increases from $1425 to $1500 per credit hour. Taking these two increases together, this is a raise of 15.4% over the current minimum that will take effect at the beginning of AY 2018-19, less than a year from now.. It is also the first time we know of that adjuncts across the university have ever received raises two years in a row.
    • According to our rough estimates, over 70% of adjuncts would receive a raise in the minimum the first year and 80% cumulatively over both years.
    • Those earning between $1425 and $1500 get a $150 one-time payment the first time they teach during 2017-18.
  • Full-time salaries and benefits:
    • Full-time members of the bargaining unit will receive the same raise on 7/1/18 as on 7/1/17, which was the largest in the 2014-18 contract: 1.625% across-the-board, and 1.25-1.75% merit.
    • This extension  means that full-time members will not immediately face the pressure of higher health insurance premiums and co-pays.   Since we signed our last contract in 2014, all other unions who have signed contracts and employees not covered by collective bargaining have seen increases in premiums and co-pays.
    • Given that Temple does not know what its state appropriation for this year will be, locking in this raise and our current health care costs and benefits is, we believe, a wise choice.
  • Other gains for adjuncts:
    • A joint committee will be established to explore increasing Job Security for adjuncts. Within a year of forming, the committee is required to report to the Administration and TAUP, who are required to respond within two months of receiving the report.
    • The Health Insurance subsidy currently offered to adjuncts is now in the contract and thus not subject to unilateral administrative change, and the terms of eligibility are expanded so more adjuncts will qualify.
    • Adjuncts will now be protected by procedures on Grievance, Arbitration, and Discipline/Dismissal. The arbitration procedure turns to impartial, independent arbitrators to settle disputes.
    • Each adjunct will have an official Personnel File in the department or college that will include standard information. Union membership information will not be part of the file.  Adjuncts will be informed when material is added to their personnel file, and they get a chance to include a rebuttal of any negative information placed in it.
    • Protections for adjuncts’ Academic Freedom are written into the contract.
    • Joint committees are established to investigate Affirmative Action, Promotion, and Office Space.
    • Adjunct faculty whose classes are cancelled within one week prior to the start of classes or during Add-Drop will receive 4% of the salary they would have received as compensation.

The agreement is now posted on the TAUP website.  Over the next few days, we will be sending out further eBulletins on this Tentative Agreement, and we look forward to communicating with you in the days and weeks ahead.

 

Steve Newman, President

Jennie Shanker, Vice President

Norma Corrales-Martin, Treasurer

Art Hochner, Chief Negotiator

On behalf of the Negotiating Team and the Executive Committee