Admin’s embarrassing retreat from the bargaining table at the end of last week’s session revealed that they are faltering in response to the force that you and your Union have exerted in the wake of our Unfair Labor Practice victory.
When the bargaining teams returned to the negotiations on Friday, they did so in a campus environment that has been changed by you and your fellow adjunct colleagues, thanks to the work you’ve done to fight back against the University’s unprecedented union-busting agenda. Adjuncts and our student allies have filled the air with chants of “Union Power!” marching from Urban Plaza to President Ann Cudd’s office to confront her with notice of the state board’s ruling. Court-ordered admissions of wrongdoing, reluctantly signed by the Vice Provost of Faculty Success, have appeared in departments and adjunct offices across PSU. Media outlets have begun publicizing the University’s bad faith actions to the wider community. And the clock is running out on the 30-day deadline that the University has for finally releasing the funds.
While the increased pressure on PSU was palpable, last Friday’s meeting began on deceptively civil terms. Your PSUFA bargaining team started with a move to accept a tentative agreement on Article 10 (Grievances), which will ensure that you have the power to defend the rights articulated in your contract. Conflict began to surface, though, when Admin presented their counterproposal on Article 4 (Orientations). While your team has convinced PSU that regular paid orientations for new Adjuncts are essential for faculty success, PSUFA has had to push back on Admin’s flimsy argument that clerical issues prevent them from compensating you for that training at a meaningful rate. PSU then presented their counterproposal on Article 6 (Academic Freedom). Your bargaining team challenged the University’s neglect of explicit protections for Adjuncts to express themselves outside of the university setting (extramural speech), as well as within it. PSUFA once again had to educate Admin on the precarious position of faculty members who lack the protections of tenure and continuous employment, reiterating the need for grievance procedures to defend your academic freedom.
It was during PSUFA’s presentation on Article 12 (Salaries and Payroll, slides here) that the Admin team’s composure began to break. Once again, your bargaining team reaffirmed that you deserve equal pay for equal work. Countering the University’s insulting offer of a bare-minimum cost of living allowance of 2.1% with no raise, your team insisted on substantial increases to your pay (a $1,882 per-credit minimum), lowering the initial proposal while still calling for 85% pay parity with our non-tenure-line full-time colleagues. Your Union also detailed other proposals, including increases to compensation for additional forms of labor (such as curriculum development and committee work), the implementation of length-of-service pay raises, a recommitment to funding adjunct inclusion initiatives, and humane changes to benefits, such as the creation of a shared sick leave program to expand access and make sick leave a usable resource for the Adjuncts who most need it.
Throughout these discussions, Admin grew increasingly agitated at questions about their choice to ignore proposed improvements to Adjunct working conditions. Asked why the University had eliminated adjunct inclusion funding from their earlier counterproposal, PSU’s team refused to answer, claiming that they do not engage in discussion during the other team’s proposal presentations, a contention that runs contrary to what has been standard practice at the bargaining table. An awkward scene unfolded as they buckled under the pressure that you and your Union have created through our collective action. One member of the administration reproached your team for having demanded—months earlier—that they give their full attention to statements shared from Adjuncts who had been most harmed by the unethical and illegal fund freeze. Admin then impulsively called for a caucus that they did not return from. As your bargaining team watched, a group of highly-paid administrators who have been tasked with overseeing critical functions for the University haphazardly withdrew from the room, reduced to a fragmented and confused muddle, reeling, it seems, from all of their failed attempts to weaken your union.
As bewildering as it was to witness this spectacle, one thing became clear. For all of management’s institutional power, PSU’s administration lacks both the solidarity and the courage of conviction that you and your union have, the very principles that will help us win the fight for a fair contract.