Union Activity in the News

By Dan Hibshman

There's quite a lot going on in the world of labor organization, both nationwide and statewide attention to the issues of part-time ("adjunct") faculty and local news pertaining to possible unionization of farm workers and nurses.

Members of MPFA may or may not identify with the causes of workers in other professions and occupations, but it seems a worthwhile goal to increase awareness and strengthen that identification. Though we all wear a variety of hats, one of them--the one that is bringing us together here--is that of worker. Much is written and spoken about the global economy and work in the 21st century; workers do now and will need to look out for their own interests, which are not the same as those of owners, administrators, governing boards, etc.

The Nation, in its issue of October 5, 1998, carries two articles of direct relevance to MPFAers: "New Year, New Organizing Efforts on Campuses" (p. 17) and "Trustees of the Right's Agenda" (p. 19). In the same issue are reports on student activism at various U.S. campuses, two views on Prop 209 in the UC system, and "Court Rulings Spur Growth in Campus Censorship." A quote from the first of the articles listed above: "The struggles of adjuncts don't just speak to issues of higher education but also to the future of the US labor movement. It's not going to be steelworkers or factory employees out there on the strike line for much longer. It's going to be service employees like childcare workers and nurses. . . . Part-time teaching jobs can't leave America like cheap factory labor."

During the past month, labor issues made news in Mendocino County. Grape pickers working in Anderson Valley for the Roederer (champagne) company stopped work due to complaints about the terms of their payment and received information and advice from a Sonoma County representative of the United Farm Workers. Mendocino has been beyond the organized territory of UFW, but that could be changing. Informal reports suggest, not surprisingly, that local growers' treatment of workers ranges along a wide spectrum, from generous to exploitive.

The September 23 Ukiah Daily Journal reported that "UVMC nurses file for union": "The registered nurses [at Ukiah Valley Medical Center] collected signatures from nearly 75 percent of their colleagues [and] filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to affiliate with the California Nurses Association, the state's largest labor and professional organization to RNs."

The September, 1998 Update from the statewide Academic Senate contains several presumably useful web addresses in addition to news about CCC funding and other issues: "The Academic Senate continues to support equity for part-time faculty and adequate numbers of full-time faculty. AAUP has excellent resources at http://ww.aaup.org/ptlink.htm and AFT has just published a scathing indictment of PT abuse, "The Vanishing Professor," online at http://www.aft.org/higheduc/professor. A national association of adjunct faculty is maintained at http://www.sai.com/adjunct and a California association has just begun as well, with a web site at http://www.surfari.net/~rsutter/elchorro.

Email: Mendocino College Part-time Faculty
Last Update: 8/23/98