“Our health has been adversely affected by the present conditions.” One worker stated in a recorded testimony. Workers for the most part have wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from management. The same worker continued: “We go to sleep exhausted. We wake up in the morning, exhausted; and — exhausted — we go to work.”

In order to remedy the situation, the American University Student Worker Alliance has proposed including a limit on workloads within the university’s contract with Aramark, to be re-negotiated this summer, and to include a limit on workloads within the university’s new Social Responsibility Code. The Student Worker Alliance has delivered two letters to the university administration asking them to consider these steps. They have not received any answer directly from the university, but have received a letter back from Don MacIntire, Director of Housekeeping and Aramark’s head manager on AU’s campus, dismissing all of our concerns.

We will not let the administration and Aramark, who are working together to hide the problems faced by Aramark workers on our campus. Join SWA for a rally and march on Friday, April 20th at 2:15 PM on the main quad of American University. More information is available here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/268766809884609/

This event was dedicated to further bridging the gap that exists between students and Aramark workers.

We were able to engage  with students, as well as have meaningful discussions about Aramark Workers and what WE can do as a community to create change.

The event was a success and we are working hard to keep up the momentum of our campaign!

Below are few photos of students who have come out and shown their dedication and support for the Aramark Workers!

Last thursday, around 30 students delivered a letter to President Kerwin’s office to outline the injustices being perpetrated on campus and to propose a solution. Here is the letter that we delivered:

Dear President Kerwin,

We, the students of American University, believe that all of the people who live, study, and work on our campus are all equal members of the same American University community. American University’s cleaning service workers play an especially important role in maintaining our campus and AU could not function without them. Over the years, many students have developed deeply personal relationships with the cleaning staff, and we have a special respect for the work that they do. However, due to their ambiguous status as workers on our campus but employees of a private company, the workers’ needs often go unheard. It is out of our sense of community and the deep respect that we have for the workers that we demand that American University take action now to alleviate the deteriorating working conditions on our campus.

Last Spring, American University renegotiated its contract with Aramark.  In the new contract, Aramark agreed to take over the cleaning of several off campus buildings without hiring any new employees. In order to accomplish this, Aramark increased the daily workload for each worker by 5,000 square feet, to 27,000 square feet per day. While we have been told by Aramark management and university administrators that new technology has allowed this increase to happen with minimal human impact, it is clear to us that in reality, workers are bearing the cost of the new contract.

Over the past year, workers have experienced tremendous pressure from Aramark supervisors and university administrators to work faster. Many workers have trouble meeting their workload, but by regularly failing to complete their unrealistic daily quotas, they face termination. No less than six workers have been fired this year alone, and yet no new workers have been hired to fill their spots. The nightshift has been especially affected. Nightshift workers report that they are chronically understaffed and are often required to clean more that the required 27,000 square feet per day. These conditions have caused serious health problems for many workers, on all three shifts.

As the university administration renegotiates its contract with Aramark, we ask that two key provisions by included in the contract in order to solve these chronic problems. The first is to set a universal standard for the amount of space an Aramark worker is required to clean per day. We ask that this standard be set at last year’s level, 22,000 square feet. Furthermore, a provision should be included that requires Aramark to hire new employees after a worker is fired or quits.

We hope that by working together, we can solve the issues faced by some of the most valuable workers on our campus.

Respectfully, we request a response by April 5^th.

Sincerely,

The AU Student Worker Alliance

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Adjunct professors at American University in Washington, D.C., won a union last month, but not before two years of organizing made it possible. The campaign started as adjuncts met in each other’s homes and slowly grew to encompass rallies, marches, and flashmobs from supportive students.

Adjuncts are a notoriously transient workforce, shuttling between many campuses to pull together enough classes to make a living. The vote came in 379-284, however, a victory for professors who have been struggling with low pay, no benefits, and no job security. Many adjuncts are paid as little as $2,000 per course.

University administrators had sent anti-union memos to faculty and students, but in a surprising move, agreed to recognize the union and not challenge the election results.

AU administrators had fought shuttle bus drivers in 2007 who won a union with the Teamsters, and in 1996, operating engineers failed in their bid to organize after the university put on a serious intimidation campaign.

Leaders in the new union suspect that administrators did not expect such a big margin. When faced with a healthy majority and strong student support, administrators were forced to acknowledge the deep dissatisfaction. It was a cold dose of reality for administrators who crow about the “campus community.”

The adjuncts’ decision to join Service Employees Local 500 makes them the third school around the district to join the local. George Washington University adjuncts signed up in 2005 and adjuncts at Montgomery College in 2008.

While many colleges, especially public institutions, find themselves in a financial bind, American does not. AU is a private school with about 6,500 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students. It is most widely known for its School of International Studies and School of Public Policy and its student body is usually ranked highly by the Princeton Review as “politically active.”

The university budget for fiscal year 2012 projects a roughly 15 percent growth in expenditures. Salaries for part-time faculty make up less than 2 percent of the budget. Pay for the five highest-paid administration figures, however, has soared in the last five years, to near $3 million combined. Full-time tenured professors make up to $150,000 a year.

As negotiations draw closer, said Anne McLeer, research director for Local 500 and herself a former adjunct, adjuncts are looking for “improved rates of pay, access to benefits, to fair evaluations, to job security, and protections against unfair and capricious discipline or dismissal.”

IT’S BAD EVERYWHERE

Adjuncts across the country face similar difficulties. A 2010 study on the conditions faced by part-time faculty at two-year and four-year institutions, published by the Teachers union (AFT), reported that only 28 percent of adjuncts receive health benefits through their colleges and a third are paid less than $2,500 per course. Almost half say they make less than $15,000 annually from teaching.

A plurality say they would like to teach at one institution full-time but cannot find a position. More than half rely on teaching alone for their income.

The AFT study says unionized faculty are in a far better situation than their non-union counterparts, enjoying less concern about compensation, a greater likelihood of having health insurance, and better access to employer-funded retirement plans.

American’s adjuncts face more than bread-and-butter problems. They are roughly half the teaching population, with upwards of 500 adjuncts in classrooms each semester, but many feel isolated from the university community. Erik Cooke, in the Philosophy and Religion Department, said adjuncts “often feel very marginal to the conversation.” Part-timers have had, until recently, no place in the faculty senate or any other university governance structures.

Having no job security, prospects for promotion, or living wage has “detrimental effects on academic freedom itself, the ability to do research, the creation of the next generation of scholars, and the production of knowledge in our society,” McLeer says.

Adjunct professors are starting to coordinate to challenge their precarious status through organizations such as the New Faculty Majority and the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor. The Modern Language Association, an international association of teachers and professors of the humanities, has long been known as the arbiter of proper footnotes and the bane of English students. The MLA has now begun to champion the cause of adjuncts, recommending minimum pay of $6,800 per course.

The conditions adjuncts face result from the university’s unique role as both the employer and producer of adjunct professors. Years ago, the majority of adjuncts were professionals who taught on the side, a short-term arrangement where teaching was not their primary income. But with full-time, tenure-track positions at colleges and universities increasingly rare, many newly minted PhDs are going straight from graduate school to teaching as an adjunct.

Cooke sees adjuncts used by universities to “undermine the situation of tenure-track colleagues” and “pad the bottom-line of university administrators” by providing an ample pool of low-cost, highly qualified knowledge workers.

McLeer said that by voting to unionize, “American University adjuncts are now joining the many adjunct and contingent faculties across the country who are refusing to allow themselves to be treated as a second tier.”

This victory for worker’s rights on campus comes after a lot of work on the part of the Student Worker Alliance to pressure the university administration to remain neutral and recognize the results of the election. Two weeks ago, students from SWA delivered a letter and petition with over 200 signatures to every school dean and department head on campus. Later that same week, SWA staged two flashmobs, the latter of which culminated in a march to the provost’s office where the same letter and petition was delivered to him. Earlier in the semester, students made a video expressing student support for unionization efforts.

We want to send our most sincere congratulatory messages to all of the adjunct professors who have dedicated their last semester to fighting for their union. We will continue standing in solidarity with you throughout your contract negotiations and whatever comes next.

By Paige Jones

About 20 Student Worker Alliance members stormed Provost Scott Bass’s office Feb. 3 to deliver a letter protesting AU’s decision to hire legal counsel to challenge the potential adjunct union.

The club marched around the Quad, shouting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, union busting’s got to go” and holding signs earlier that day.

Student Worker Alliance member and College of Arts and Sciences junior Ethan Miller said the club supported an adjunct union because it will benefit students as well.

“A union will not change the quality of education, it would increase the quality of education,” he said.

Student Worker Alliance members protested AU because they believe the University is using student tuition to pay for this legal counsel, Miller said.

“We pay money for student tuition and don’t expect the University to use it to stifle democracy,” he said.

Associate Director of Media Relations Maralee Csellar said the National Labor Relations Board legally requires AU to hire legal counsel.

“Both the union and the University must be represented by legal counsel in these proceedings, and each does so responsibly by working with attorneys whose expertise is in labor law,” Csellar said.

AU adjunct faculty members are currently voting whether they want to unionize. The vote ends Feb. 16.

Miller said the University has not remained neutral during this election because it distributed flyers to every adjunct’s mailbox, emphasizing the liabilities of a union.

“They plan to challenge the election in court,” Miller said. “They don’t respect the election.”

Student Worker Alliance member and School of International Service freshman Emily Ellis said the Student Worker Alliance protested to raise student awareness.

Share the video around!

Adjuncts at American University are organizing into a union in order to protect their rights on campus. Right now, they earn as low as $2000 per three-credit course they teach, receive little to no benefits and are not treated respectfully. They have no offices and are not included in university governance structures.

However, the University has taken steps in order to stop the adjuncts from exercising their democratic rights and forming a union. They have spent hundreds of thousands of student tuition dollars to hire a notorious anti-union law firm and have been sending anti-union memoranda and flyers to adjuncts on campus and at their homes. While they claim that the faculty senate can be adapted to include the adjuncts, we know that the issues that adjuncts are facing can only be solved with a collective bargaining agreement between their union and the university.

Last Tuesday, students delivered a letter and copies of the student petition to every department head and the deans of the 5 schools. We want to send a strong message to the university that we are not okay with them using our tuition money to stifle the democratic right to organize and to continue to violate our professor’s human rights.

photos by Katie Figenbaum

Written by Mitch Ellmauer, SWA member

You may have heard or seen in last week’s edition of the Eagle that American University’s adjunct professors are voting on whether to join SEIU Local 500.

During the election, it is important that our campus (students as well as faculty) understand the context surrounding the adjuncts’ organizing campaign. However, after reading the “Unionization FAQ” on the Academic Affairs website, it is obvious that AU is not being completely honest about the situation. I would like to take a moment to clear up these misunderstandings that AU’s administration is promoting.

The University claims the issues that the union would address are already being dealt with in the Faculty Senate. This is simply not true.

The Faculty Senate represents faculty in academic matters, but it has little or no power to represent faculty in employment matters, such as negotiating salaries and protecting adjuncts’ job security. Most importantly, the University is not required to engage in collective bargaining with the Faculty Senate.

A union is the best way for the adjunct professors to make AU take their concerns seriously. If they choose to join the union, the University will be legally required to treat the adjuncts as equal partners in good faith contract negotiations. Also, the working conditions set by the contract would be legally binding.

SEIU 500 already represents 2,400 adjunct professors at George Washington University and Montgomery College. Adjunct professors, graduate employees and other academic workers have organized at a number of universities across the country, including NYU and the state university systems of California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon and Washington, among others.

If anyone needs union representation, it is AU’s adjunct professors.

Many adjunct professors earn as little as $2,000 a class; the average adjunct earns $19,000 to $25,000 a year.

The number of adjunct professors at AU has increased almost 50 percent since 2002, and adjuncts make up half of AU’s faculty.

As AU hires more adjunct professors, the number of available full-time positions shrinks. This is a trend that is repeated at almost every university in the country. Getting a tenure-track position is often likened to winning the lottery.

A significant and growing number of adjunct professors are teaching full-time, but cannot find full-time teaching positions. To make ends meet, adjunct professors often travel between several universities and have larger course loads than full-time and tenured professors.

AU does not give adjuncts healthcare, pensions or time to conduct research like it does for full-time faculty.

Nor do adjunct professors receive any job security. Many professors do not know whether or not they are teaching until two weeks before classes start. AU is also notorious for cancelling adjuncts’ classes just days before the semester begins.

Some students have expressed concerns that an adjuncts’ union will increase tuition.

However, adjunct professors, who make up half the faculty, account for just 4 percent of the budget allocated to paying faculty salaries.

AU also has some of the highest paid college administrators in the nation. Last year AU had a $40 million budget surplus. Surely AU can afford to pay adjunct professor fair compensation for their contributions to our campus community.