A Resounding Win for Adjuncts at Henry Ford

Sometimes the loudest voice of all is the one that makes hardly a sound. Like the rustle of ballots piling up for the Henry Ford Community College Adjunct Faculty Organization (AFO) when the Michigan Employment Relations Commission counted them up May 7. The vote was a resounding 334 to 41 in a unit of 580.

The AFO began organizing less than a year ago, dismayed by impossibly low pay scales that maxed out at $1,700 a course, lack of job security and health insurance and no access to office space for preparation work or to meet with students. The adjuncts sought help the Henry Ford Community College Federation of Teachers, the full-time faculty union at HFCC and from its affiliate, AFT Michigan.

Even though Dearborn is a union town and the instructional faculty have been unionized for more than 40 years, the administration fought the adjuncts, says Mary Beck, AFO interim president. First the college intimidated the adjuncts, sending out a letter sprinkled with veiled threats. Then, after cards were filed for an election, the college attempted to whittle down who would be eligible to vote and be part of the unit.

HFCCFT president John McDonald sent a letter to all college staff, making a strong statement of support for the adjuncts and enumerating the benefits a union would bring to its members as well as to the college and community.

The college’s initial posture, advanced by a "reactionary" attorney, was "a missed opportunity to build good will among adjunct supporters," observes McDonald. In response, both full-time and adjunct faculty activists lobbied the board of trustees to allow for a fair unit definition.

With the help of AFT Michigan staff, the AFO organizing committee was able to quickly learn the basics of organizing. "It’s a science," says Beck. "We met one-on-one with adjuncts, listened to their concerns, established a relationship. Adjuncts feel they have a voice."

The final and most potent weapon in AFO’s arsenal, however, proved to be students, says Beck. "Students love a good cause!" They circulated a petition and collected over 1,000 signatures in less than two weeks. "That turned the corner," says Beck. The college agreed to a broad unit definition if the AFO would agree to leave students out of it. The unit includes all adjunct faculty teaching credit-awarding classes, as well as those doing non-credit instructional work as part-time librarians, counselors, English Language Institute and Learning Lab instructors, job placement officers and cooperative education specialists.

Now, as AFO surveys its members about bargaining priorities and prepares to negotiate a first contract, those supportive students "are our ace in the hole," says Beck.

AFT Michigan also represents adjuncts at Wayne State University, Wayne County Community College, the University of Michigan, and Eastern Michigan University. Nationally, AFT represents 165,000 faculty, professional staff and graduate employees, including 60,000 contingent faculty members.

Comments

[Dave Kamper]

Hooray! Way to go, AFT-Michigan! Ahhhh.... the great historical irony of organizing a union in an institution named after Henry Ford.

[Craig Smith]

Let me add my kudos to AFT Michigan who continues to organize, bargain and improve the working conditions of contingent faculty and grad employees throughout the state.

Mr. Kamper: surely you are not suggesting that Mr. Ford didn't support unions?!