[Usually around
this time I’d be sharing Fall Semester Preview posts. I’m on sabbatical, so no
teaching for me this Fall; instead I thought I’d connect Labor Day to issues of
academic labor this week. Leading up
to a special weekend tribute post!]
On formal and
informal ways that the Massachusetts State
College Association (MSCA) represents the best of 21st century
academic labor.
There’s never
been a moment in my academic career when I haven’t been connected to prominent conversations
and debates about academic unionization—I’m pretty sure that TUGSA, the Temple University Graduate Student
Association formally incorporated as a union in 2001 while I
was a grad student in English at Temple, was the first successfully created graduate
student union in the country, and it was definitely one of the first in any
case. While I certainly supported both TUGSA and grad student unionization more
generally, and took part in many of the marches and collective actions that led
to the March 2001 unionization vote, I’ll admit that I found some of the rhetoric
a bit over the top: for example, I remember a conversation with a fellow
English grad student who was spearheading the unionization efforts in which I
noted that I didn’t think it was helpful to frame us as if we were steel
workers in Pittsburgh factories or the like, to which my colleague responded that
he felt we were precisely the same as steel workers in Pittsburgh factories.
I still believe
there’s value in differentiating distinct forms and worlds of work; but the
trends of adjunctification that I highlighted in yesterday’s post, along with
many others, make clear that academic labor is certainly still labor, and thus that
we still need labor unions to represent and advocate for those performing said
labor. Over the last couple years both my overall faculty union the MSCA and my
specific Fitchburg
State University Chapter (currently led by my English Studies colleague and
friend Aruna
Krishnamurthy) have been absolutely essential in challenging some of the
most destructive 21st century trends and fighting for all FSU and
Massachusetts public faculty. Most overtly, the union has helped us navigate a
painfully extended and uncertain contract situation—after more than a year of
collective bargaining both faculty and administrators across the MSCA system signed
a contract in July 2018, only to see another year pass without that
contract being funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Among many other
effects, that precarious situation meant that FSU faculty spent pretty much all
of the last two years in Work-to-Rule
status, a necessary form of collective action but one that only added to
feelings of uncertainty and unease across the campus. I honestly can’t imagine
how any of us, individually or collectively, could have navigated those years
without the presence of Aruna and all the MSCA leaders; the fight continues to
be sure, but as of this past
July 8 we have secured MA funding for our contract.
Collective action
and bargaining are key elements of any labor union’s efforts, but they’re far
from the only things that unions can do or offer. In more informal but just as
important ways, unions can reflect community and solidarity, both practical and
philosophical links between the individuals and groups that comprise them. The
possibility of adjunct
unionization has become a meaningful one throughout the country, and I
certainly support the formation of such unions to advocate for the distinct and
specific situations and issues that contingent faculty face. But at the same
time, both while those processes unfold and even after such adjunct unions are
created, I believe that all faculty unions can and should represent and
advocate for every type of faculty member. And at FSU, Aruna and our whole Chapter
have consistently expressed precisely that perspective toward adjunct and
contingent faculty on campus, not only in communications but also and most
importantly in workshops, actions, and other efforts to advocate for crucial elements
like health insurance. While I have been fully convinced that all faculty need
union representation, I believe that the most precarious among us—which certainly
includes graduate students but especially means contingent faculty—need it with
a particular and potent urgency.
Next Labor week
post tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think?
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