Adjuncts fight to unionize

For the past six years, adjunct professors at Manhattan College have been fighting with the administration to form a union. In 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) oversaw a vote among the adjuncts about whether to organize a union affiliated with New York State United Teachers. But the ballots were impounded at the NLRB headquarters after the college protested that as a religious institution, its employees do not come under the jurisdiction of a government agency.

On Aug. 26, the New York City regional NLRB office ruled against Manhattan College for the second time in four years and ordered that the ballots be counted. The box would have been opened on Monday, but the college appealed the decision to the NLRB headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Many colleges rely on adjunct professors, who are not tenured and therefore not guaranteed work or access to the benefits that are available to full-time professors. Some people want the freedom that comes with being an adjunct, but a growing number of professors are unable to find full-time work and are stuck in a cycle of teaching at multiple universities to make ends meet.

Deborah Harris has been an adjunct professor for Manhattan College’s School of Education for 10 years. She is retired and teaches at the college part-time, so initially, she did not want to get involved in the unionization effort. But after some convincing, she came to feel she could make a difference for other adjuncts who will come behind her.

“For me, it’s simply that we have a right organize, that we have a right to a say in our working conditions and our salary, et cetera,” she said.

Ms. Harris said she is pretty happy at Manhattan College, and other adjuncts have told her the school is a positive environment.

“We’re not trying to do something, as far as I’m concerned, that would be detrimental to the college and we’re not trying to get all the money in the world, but some people do need health benefits,” she said.

Ms. Harris also said it would be good to have more uniformity in how classes are assigned, and for adjuncts to have more advanced notice if they will be teaching classes for a given semester.