Before May 1, the union representing adjunct professors at Suffolk will give notice to the university that they would like to terminate their current contract and negotiate a new one, officials said.
Suffolk Affiliated Faculty-American Association of University Professors, the union that represents Suffolk professors who are adjunct or part-time, is working to renew their contract for the first time since their initial one in 2009, according to Robert Rosenfeld, a philosophy professor and president of SAF-AAUP.
When Suffolk adjunct professors voted to unionize in 2006, it took years of bargaining with the university to form the current contract. The contract expires June 30, and the union is ready to enter a new phase of bargaining negotiations to construct a new, and possibly improved, contract.
“How long that takes depends on how much the sides disagree, how entrenched the sides are, or how much they agree,” said Rosenfeld.
The union, which represents about 250 professors as well as other adjuncts, teaching assistants, and lecturers, plan to use the current contract as the framework for the next one.
Currently, adjunct professors are not allowed to hand out leaflets. They may put leaflets out during tabling, however, and allow others to pick them up. Rosenfeld said this is one term the union hopes to update in the new contract. The union also wants to abolish other terms that limit their speech and communication.
Rosenfeld said the union finds such restrictions “unreasonable.”
They will also ask for more job security and for raises, despite having what Rosenfeld said was “a decent pay package” in the current contract.
“We’re basically looking for good compensation, better job security, and probably some other things like making the ‘no strike, no lockout’ clause less severe,” he said.
Under the current contract, adjunct professors must teach two courses per semester for 10 consecutive semesters in order to qualify for health benefits. If a professor drops one course, he or she has to start over, Rosenfeld said. This is another part of the contract the union hopes to update.
Once notifying the university of their plan to update the contract, the bargaining period will begin no longer than 30 days later, and could take weeks, even months.
“I think it’s going to be difficult,” Rosenfeld said. “It seems like [the university has] been trying to squeeze [out] adjunct faculty and reduce their expenses.”
Though pay and benefit conditions are difficult for adjunct professors, Rosenfeld said conditions for full-time professors have become complicated in recent years as well. He cited a policy change last spring in which the university applied post-tenure review policy in the updated handbook, which garnered mixed emotions on campus.
The turnover rate for upper administration at Suffolk has also contributed to tougher times for professors on campus.
“There was a feeling years back that we were all sort of family here at Suffolk and that’s gone,” Rosenfeld said.
Rosenfeld and the union are ready to update their contract despite how much is at stake.
“They’ve generally played by the rules,” he said of university administration. “I don’t know if they’re going to get tough with us. We could already be let go in between semesters.”
A Suffolk spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the issue.
