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Part-time vs. Full-time: The debate around who can join a faculty union
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Thursday, April 18, 2019 | Vo l u m e 1 2 3 | I s s u e 6 0 ASUNM
Another record-low turnout for Senate election
By Anthony Jackson/ @TonyAnjackson/ Daily Lobo
Adam Lopez, right, canvasses to UNM students in Smith Plaza on Wednesday, April 17, 2019.
By Justin Garcia By Danielle Prokop/ @ProkopDani/ Daily Lobo
The UA-UNM Logo on the back of union members’ shirts at a meeting on Tuesday, April 9, 2019.
By Kyle Land @kyleoftheland Why is full-time and part-time faculty organizing together such a controversy? This debate has dominated nearly all conversation around faculty unions in the U.S., which have grown in frequency the past few years. Around 35 percent of all public colleges and universities have some sort of faculty union. The University of New Mexico is experiencing the same controversy now. Their response to a petition from the proposed union — United Academics of UNM (UA-UNM) — recommended rejecting the possibility of a union. This is partly because UNM considers adjunct and other part-time faculty to not be “regular, non-probationary employees,” a category they say the Public Employees Labor Relations Act forbids part-time faculty from unionizing. However, some part-time faculty at UNM disagree with this categorization. “Part-time temporaries don’t necessarily work part-time and they’re not temporary,” said Karen Champine, who works for UNM. Champine used be a parttime instructor for 12 years, but is now a senior lecturer. She said her department, Mathematics and Statistics, is currently having 80 percent of its courses being taught by part-time faculty. “They’re carrying the brunt of these lower-level classes,” Champine said, referring to parttime faculty. Champine and Billy Brown, another part-time instructor in the math and statistics department, are active in UA-UNM, but both said they do not speak for the union
in any official capacity. They also said one of the primary issues with part-time positions is the lack of job security. Currently, part-time faculty sign a contract every semester to teach a certain number of courses. “The part-time person deserves a little more stability in their employment,” Brown said. Another tenet of the University’s argument against the petition is what’s known as a “community of interest.” This is a legal term that defines who can join a union based off their desires from such a body. In their response, the University said that UA-UNM including tenure and nontenured faculty in the unit constitutes “an inappropriate bargaining unit,” due to the “certain rights, protections and responsibilities” possessed by tenured faculty. In other words, UNM is stating the two groups are too dissimilar to bargain together. The University suggested the groups form two separate unions. Brown said a community of interest is shared by all faculty members. He said both groups share common concerns, such as rare pay increases, teaching loads and class sizes. “There is one big community of interest, and that is those of us who are supporting the union feel we would all benefit from having a collective bargaining unit,” Brown said. Jackson Lewis Debates concerning part-time and full-time faculty members in unions are nothing new. Some schools, such as University of Oregon and Portland State, have unions that represent all of their faculty members. Others, like Northeastern University and Barnard College, have separate unions for each body.
Sonam Singh, an adjunct lecturer at Barnard, told the Daily Lobo that the college is represented by Jackson Lewis — a law firm that represents management in labor disputes — during negotiations, the same firm currently representing UNM. Singh said university administrations attempting to separate unions based on rank is a common tactic of schools Jackson Lewis represents. “They’ll say these people can’t be in a union together, because their interests are too far apart. Or, if that’s not going to work, they might say, ‘well these people are in the union (so) all these other people should be in the union’,” Singh said. “Whichever way they think will make the election harder.” Barnard College was ultimately successful in forming their contingent faculty union. However, some schools represented by Jackson Lewis have avoided elections. “If you’re a very difficult employer and willing to spend the money to pay Jackson Lewis to do all its tricks, it’s not impossible — in fact it’s fairly easy — to avoid a contract,” said David Rosenfeld, a labor attorney based out of Alameda, California, who has litigated against Jackson Lewis multiple times. One of the most recent cases was in 2018 against MGM Resorts, whom Jackson Lewis was representing. Last year, full-time, non-tenured faculty at Northeastern University withdrew their petition to unionize because the university argued they qualified as management, who are not allowed to form a union. Rather than wait for a decision by the National Labor Relations Board, the
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@Just516garc The final election of the school year had 11 candidates elected by 961 students to the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico Senate. The turnout — a rate of 6 percent — is the lowest in 15 semesters. Despite the low turnout, Elections Commission Director Jordan Montoya and Assistant Director Christian Ojeda said they were happy with the turnout in context of relatively few candidates and bad weather. “At the end of the day, voter turnout could be high, voter turnout could be low, but I think what we should really look at is how these amazing people are going to be,” Montoya said after the election. They also said they would have liked to have done more outreach and communications to improve student
participation in ASUNM’s elections. Under Montoya and Ojeda, neither senate election had more than seven percent of UNM undergraduates participate. The presidential/vice presidential election saw a turnout of nine percent, or 1,476 votes, to secure the highest obtainable positions for an undergraduate at UNM. A survey conducted during the presidential election identified trends in the 1,476 students that voted. Montoya and Ojeda said she had not seen the results, and did not have a chance to act upon them. The results of the survey were provided to the Daily Lobo by the Student Activities Center upon request. They also added this election was the easiest in their time leading Elections Commission. In previous elections over the last year, a question about a tweet’s
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Election complaint filed against GPSA president-elect By Justin Garcia @Just516garc The Graduate and Professional Student Association tabled certification of the 2019 presidential election until the Court of Review can hear a complaint filed against presidentelect Muhammad Afzaal. The decision to table was approved unanimously by the election committee Monday evening during a special meeting. A second meeting on Monday, this one to appoint justices to the Court of Review, was called off after GPSA’s Council could not muster the six-person quorum required by the GPSA Constitution.
The complaint, which was provided to the Daily Lobo by GPSA, alleged that Afzaal violated GPSA’s bylaws that prohibit campaigning within 25 feet of a polling station. It also alleges that Afzaal pressured students on North Campus to vote for him. “He could have told people to vote and stated his intention, but once people were on the website he needed to leave the area to prevent affecting that person’s vote,” wrote Joslyn Gabaldon, who filed the complaint. Gabaldon said the incident occurred on April 4, while she and a handful of her colleagues were studying for a quiz on North
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