Unions make waves across Southern California campuses, learning from each other as they go

Solidarity among faculty on the same campus may not come as a surprise. But a recent flurry of union organizing at higher education institutions in Southern California shows how much attention faculty are paying to those in unionization efforts outside of their own.

Experts say employees don’t take lightly the decision to sign their name on a union petition that will be given to their employers. One question that comes up is, “Can this work here?”

“Seeing other art and design colleges form unions has been really inspirational for me,” said Elizabeth Franks, associate director of recruitment and visitor experience in the office of admissions at CalArts. She’s part of a union campaign at the art school in Valencia.

Seeing ArtCenter College Design and Pratt Institute unionize recently, she said, made her think that improving pay and benefits through a union contract could happen on her campus.

Seeing what others can get

Many of the unions have organized under UAW, formerly known as the United Auto Workers. The national organization provided those campaigns with representatives from new unions at NYU, the New School for Social Research, and Barnard College to answer questions.

“They were able to get something in their contract where the administration couldn't switch health insurances unless they were equal to what they were currently on,” said Sam Wentz, a CalArts instructor of dance who’s helping lead the union effort.

Improving health benefits, Wentz said, drove him and others at CalArts to support creating a union. The group has not delivered its petition to administrators or the National Labor Relations Board.

This kind of communication across campaigns has been part of labor strategy for a long time.

“Union organizers talk to each other. Same goes in academic employment as it would in a factory job,” said Tobias Higbie, director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UCLA. “They share strategies, and in certain cases, they're part of the same union."

For better pay and benefits: Fight On?

On Dec. 10, dozens of people gathered on the steps of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

“Who are we?” prompted one of the people taking a group photo.

“UF-UAW!” the people responded.

The group then marched to the university administration building, next to the iconic Tommy Trojan statue, and delivered a letter calling on university leaders to recognize their union of adjunct, part-time, and full-time non-tenured faculty.

But among the people in the group were several USC faculty who would not be part of the bargaining unit if it’s created by university recognition or a vote.

“I'm supporting my colleagues, because the only way we can get the contract we all deserve is if we work together,” said Jeremy Royce, an adjunct instructor at USC’s prestigious school of cinematic arts.

He and his colleagues unionized earlier this year with UAW and are in the process of negotiating their first contract. They’ve hit stumbling blocks with university negotiators, he said, and he hopes that the creation of another faculty union at USC will help.

“[W]e do not believe our faculty need a union to speak for them or that applicable law will permit it,” a USC spokesperson said by email on behalf of the university.

Administrators, the email added, “have serious concerns — legal, academic, and operational — about a union purporting to represent almost all of our research, teaching, practitioner, and clinical faculty.”

The spokesperson also said that the university respects the role of unions and has worked collaboratively with them for years.

Employees share economic hurt

As inflation undermines pay and educational institutions make cost saving cuts, employees at campuses with active organizing efforts weigh the decision to put their name on a union petition.

“It is scary and hard to put your name on something that you know you can be reprimanded for,” said Rosemarie Molina, a labor studies lecturer at UCLA and Cal State Dominguez Hills. “You're on the radar now as wanting to change something or wanting to shift power and it's hard to get off the radar once you put your name on something, once you go public."

(The National Labor Relations Board says employees cannot be reprimanded for unionizing.)

USC professors Sanjay Madhav (left) and Kate Levin delivered a petition to USC administrators to recognize their union of adjunct, part time, and full-time non tenured university faculty

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

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LAist

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It doesn’t surprise her, she said, to hear that union campaigns are sharing information and serving as inspiration for others in Southern California.

What academic professionals discover when they begin talking to others like them on the same campus or elsewhere is that there’s a lot of dissatisfaction with pay and benefits.

“The system isn't working for the vast majority of people,” in higher education, UCLA’s Higbie said.

And that has a lot to do, he said, with higher education funding and decisions institutions make when budgets are tight.

“There are relatively few jobs available that are the kinds of jobs that were advertised to people when they first embarked on the process of getting an advanced degree,” he said.

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez is a lecturer at Cal State Long Beach.