In comparison to the fireworks of our last two sessions, Friday’s meeting was more quietly smoldering, starting with some morning housekeeping and conversation about our near agreement on Article 10: Grievances and ending with a long interrogation of PSU’s proposal on Article 8: Course Appointments and Assignment Rights. Here is your bargaining recap, broken down by topic.
Benefits Funds
Before delving into discussion of proposals, your Bargaining Team tried again to open conversation around the ongoing issue of the benefits funds, but PSU refused to discuss it at the table. Read more about the fight for the funds in last week’s blog post explainer. On the Monday following Friday’s session, PSUFA representatives participated in an Unfair Labor Practice hearing to testify on our position and determine if the University did indeed violated labor law by not processing benefits funds applications, and bargaining in what is referred to in labor law as, “bad faith.” Your union representatives feel optimistic about our case, but we must wait to hear the board’s ruling, which we anticipate sometime between now and October 5th.
Your Bargaining Team knows how crucial this funding is for adjuncts both now and in the future. While not at all a substitute for receiving these funds, on option for University employees, including adjuncts, is to apply for a payroll advance through Human Resources. If you’re struggling without these funds (or because of the payroll timeline in general for Fall term), you can apply for a payroll advance through PSU Human Resources by filling out this form. You can find more information about additional financial resources here. Of course, the most powerful tool you have to enforce your contract is organizing with your co-workers, building solidarity and unity to act together.
Article 10: Grievances
Your Bargaining Team has won some key changes to Article 10 (Grievances), improving the grievance process for adjuncts. Reminder: this is arguably one of the most important articles in your CBA—without strong provisions for grieving violations to your contract, your contractual rights are effectively meaningless. Again, organizing your co-worker is a powerful too, but a contract without teeth makes our organizing work much more difficult. Specific wins include: 1) Allowing for group grievances on behalf of multiple adjuncts, without every single adjunct needing to file a grievance, 2) Streamlining and shortening the grievance process to come to a remedy more promptly, and 3) Eliminating the requirement of using an outdated and problematic grievance form.
Article 8: Course Appointments & Assignment Rights
Due to the complex nature of Article 8 (Course Appointments and Assignment Rights), and the fact that PSU didn’t present an actual proposal at the table but, instead, gave a more high-level summary of their proposed new system, your Bargaining Team had a lot of questions about the intent and the implications of their language.
PSU’s proposal introduces substantial changes to our current contract. While there is consensus among the teams that Article 8 is the most complex article to administer and that there are things that could be improved, PSU’s proposed ‘improvements’ would include:
Introduction of a new category of “Probationary Adjuncts”
The elimination of 2-year contracts
A new, weaker assignment rights system
New timelines that ignore the realities of adjuncts' lives
An evaluation process for adjunct faculty that would more easily result in discipline or termination with no promise of a longer contract
The loss of credit load minimums
And more
All of this amounts to the overall degradation of job security for part-time faculty–a topic that PSU’s management team seems entirely unwilling to discuss, claiming it is the “wrong lens’” through which to look at course assignments and assignment rights. We disagree.
Your team will be working this week on preparing counter-proposals on topics like academic freedom and member rights, as well as wages (like minimum per-credit pay rates) and benefits funds. Here are some things you can do:
Reach out to a colleague to spread the word about what’s happening at the table.
Sign up for and attend Strike School, and invite a colleague!
RSVP to observe bargaining on Friday Sept. 26th, 12–4PM