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Part‐time adjunct faculty who teach at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts have unionized.
The mail-in election took place this month among non-tenure-track adjuncts who work for the school remotely or at the University Park campus, according to information from the National Labor Relations Board. The tally was 206 to 13 out of 290 eligible voters, the NLRB said.
The new union, the Adjunct Faculty Alliance/UAW, announced the victory in a news release Monday.
“Over the last 30 years, USC’s School of Cinematic Arts has transitioned to rely heavily on underpaid adjuncts who now make up 70 percent of the workforce,” the union release said. It said adjuncts teaching 20 hours per week make about $22,000 a year in Los Angeles, and some rely on public benefits.
“Recently, USC has taken away second classes from already underpaid adjuncts, cutting their income in half, and denying them access to healthcare and other benefits that they rely on,” the release stated. “Other issues include a history of gender disparity, a lack of diversity, no path to full-time status, and unpaid work including prep work, mandatory trainings, meetings, screenings and committee work.”
In an email, a spokeswoman for the school said it “highly values our adjunct professors” and that while it “would have preferred to work directly with our adjunct faculty to address their concerns, we will respect their decision to be represented by a union and are committed to bargaining in good faith to reach a fair contract.”
