Service Employees International Union 925 is working with contingent faculty (adjuncts) at Gonzaga University to form a union.
SpokaneFAVS columnist Rev. Scott Kinder-Pyler, who teaches as at both Gonzaga and Eastern Washington University, explained why he’s “Anticipating a Contingent Union at Gonzaga.” He said:
- As Gonzaga moves toward a corporation model of labor management, it makes good sense to a growing number of us that adjunct faculty organize as a formal bargaining unit. In this way adjunct faculty will be in a position of legal parity our employer.
- In the past, administration and tenured faculty have exercised good will toward adjunct faculty. However, with each new administration, policy governing adjunct faculty tends to shift. This results in uncertainty and job insecurity for adjunct faculty. Negotiating as a bargaining unit promises to bring stability and predictability to our contractual relationship with the administration.
- Pope Francis teaches us that “trade unions have been an essential force for social change without which any semblance of decent and humane society is impossible under capitalism.” Further, the Compendium of Social Doctrine of the Church (2004) holds that labor unions exert a “positive influence for social order and solidarity, and are therefore an indispensable element of social life” (#305).
Administration, however, is resistant to SEIU’s efforts.
What do you think? Should Gonzaga contingent faculty unionize?
Oops! We could not locate your form.
