Job Security Task Force Report Aims To End Contingent Precarity
By Kaitlin Gillespie, Union Organizing Representative
AFT Washington has a new tool in its fight for pay equity and job protections for the state’s contingent faculty.
This month, the state federation’s Executive Board formally adopted the Job Security Task Force report, which outlines recommendations for contractual and legislative solutions to the challenges contingent faculty face. Report authors point to lack of just cause protections, poor pay and overwork among the biggest threats to contingent faculty in Washington state.
“The two-tier labor system in higher education is bad for workers and great for bosses,” said Tim Mackie, a contingent faculty member at Cascadia College and member of the task force. “This report aims to empower our unions to fight for a united faculty.”
Instead, the report recommends the adoption of a United Faculty Model, which would eliminate the disparate working conditions that leave adjunct and associate faculty without basic job security.
The platform includes:
- Equitable opportunities for economic advancement, including placement on the same salary schedule, paid office hours, professional development opportunities and access to equipment;
- Additional pathways to tenure that would grant opportunities for permanent employment for all faculty;
- A consistent and reliable workload with transparency in scheduling;
- Evaluations and monitoring of work that are equal across the board, not based on employment status;
- Seniority benefits, including clear hiring practices that create pathways to promotions and protections from layoffs, and;
- Just cause protections that prevent employers from unilaterally terminating contingent faculty under the guise of coursework being unavailable.
The report was authored over the course of nine months by a team of contingent and tenured faculty from colleges across Washington state, and reflects the diverse experiences and perspectives of our members. Thank you to:
- Brian Platt, Associate Faculty at Everett Community College, AFT WA Local 1873
- Diane Follett, Tenured Faculty at Clover Park Technical College, AFT WA Local 3913; Clover Park Federation of Teachers Vice President
- Kristian Nattinger, Associate Faculty at Peninsula College, AFT WA Local 3439, Peninsula College Adjunct Faculty Leader
- Jim Drinkwine, Tenured Faculty at Whatcom Community College, AFT WA Local 3591; AFT WA Vice President at Large
- Marla Simpson; Senior Associate Faculty at Everett Community College, AFT WA Local 1873; Vice President of Member Support
- Michael Wewer, Senior Associate Faculty Visual Communications at Edmonds College, AFT WA Local 4254
- Tim Mackie, Associate Faculty at Cascadia College, AFT WA Local 6191; AFT WA Vice President for Contingent Faculty
A final version of the report is available on our website, and includes a checklist to help guide your local’s advocacy. There will also be a workshop on the report at this summer’s Powerful Locals conference, which is now accepting registrations.
“This (platform) will not only improve our working conditions,” Mackie said, “it will make our public colleges better.”