As the chair of Champlain College's new Adjunct Faculty Union, I cannot express how positive this process has been for me as an academic and a person. Not only did Champlain Adjunct Faculty pay increase by 9-22% in our first year as a union, we were able to codify other rights and benefits in a binding contract. Most importantly, for me, our union has provided us with an official forum for voicing and discussing the concerns of instructors, students and program directors about the need for respect for adjunct labor, and has allowed me and my colleagues to engage in meaningful dialogue with administrators and make sure that we are heard. While the process of negotiating was new and challenging, we are finding that many of our union goals were similar to those of managers and administrators. Unionizing gave everyone the opportunity to put long-ignored adjunct issues front and center, and to come up with better ways to include and treat adjuncts at our college. I cannot urge you enough to vote "YES!" in your upcoming election. I am so excited for my colleagues at CCV to have this same opportunity! Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions you might have about this process at Champlain.
April
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April Howard, Chair, is an educator, writer, translator and advocate for women’s rights and economic justice. She teaches Spanish and coordinates language classes at Champlain College, as well as Latin American Studies at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. She has a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Bard College, and is completing a Masters in Spanish from Middlebury College. She lives in Burlington, Vermont, with her husband, Ben Dangl, and their son.
April Howard, Chair, is an educator, writer, translator and advocate for women’s rights and economic justice. She teaches Spanish and coordinates language classes at Champlain College, as well as Latin American Studies at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. She has a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Bard College, and is completing a Masters in Spanish from Middlebury College. She lives in Burlington, Vermont, with her husband, Ben Dangl, and their son.
Here is my my appreciation of the Union in a sentence: The feeling that someone is looking out for you and working in your interest is awesome!
Mira
My name is David Rous and I teach at Champlain College in Burlington. Last September, after two years of negotiations, our adjunct faculty union finally gained a collective bargaining agreement with our school's administration. The new contract has won us several very nice prizes.
First and foremost, we have now achieved a position where the administration cannot simply dictate to us the terms of our employment without consulting us and getting our approval. We have a "labor relations" committee with the school so both sides have representatives ready to discuss potential issues before the become big problems. And we have a two-million strong union backing us up, which means we have help, support, and expertise available to help us negotiate with our employer and look after our members' interests. These points mean that we have gained some measure of job security, which was a major priority for many of us.
Second, we won a very significant raise for our members, ranging from about 12% to about 22%-- as a teacher of six courses per year, I personally gained about $3000 annually.
Third, we can now access professional development funds from the school, which allows us to become better, more qualified teachers, which in turn further serves to help us protect our jobs.
We could never have accomplished any of this without standing together with our union. When we stood alone as individuals, the school administration could easily disregard us, ignoring our needs and our concerns. Now they can't-- it's as simple as that. I urge you to follow our path and protect yourselves and your future!
Sincerely,
David Rous
Adjunct Faculty
Core Division
Champlain College
Burlington, VT
Mira Niagolova
Documentary Filmmaker