Our fight for a fair contract

SAIC non-tenure-track faculty (adjuncts and lecturers) voted in Dec. 2022 to join AICWU. Four months later in June 2023, the bargaining committee of colleagues we elected to represent us began negotiations with SAIC administration toward our first union contract.

At this writing, after more than 16 months and dozens of bargaining sessions, administration is still dragging its feet—refusing to make progress on many of the core issues that led us to form our union in the first place (including fair pay, access to health insurance, stability and more).

In contrast, our colleagues on the staff of both SAIC and AIC reached agreements in about 14 months.

It seems that instead of settling a fair contract that addresses our problems with the broken status quo, SAIC administration is trying to force conflict and confrontation.

We as a union have a responsibility to prepare. Should administration continue stubbornly clinging to its unsustainable old ways—treating NTT faculty as disposable, contingent, and second-class—we have to be ready to stand together and fight for the fair treatment we deserve.

That includes taking the steps necessary to do whatever it takes—up to and including a strike—to win a fair agreement.

Why we organized our union

Our bargaining unit consists of all SAIC non-tenure-track faculty (adjuncts and lecturers). Together we teach more than 80 percent of SAIC’s courses, but …

  • More than half of us cannot access health insurance;

  • We are “higher-education gig workers,” with unstable course baseloads and no protection from layoffs;

  • Opportunities for promotion (and access to benefits) have been slashed, year after year;

  • Many of our members do full-time work for a fraction of the compensation, while others—often our most marginalized colleagues—are given no opportunity for stable livelihoods.

We built our union to secure fair and equitable working conditions for all SAIC NTT Faculty. Period.

What we proposed

  • Higher Per Course Rates (PCRs) and annual raises that exceed the cost of living

  • Lengthier Multi-Year Contracts (MYCs)

  • Stable (and innovative) baseload guarantees

  • Access to health insurance and benefits for all faculty

  • Increased and equitable pathways to promotion

  • Professional development, paid leave, and bolstered research and practice funds

  • … and so much more.

What management has offered

  • The status quo

  • Walking back workplace protections

  • Diminished shared governance

  • Pittance raises

  • Scarcity-driven rat race for health care and promotions

  • A permanent underclass of disposable faculty

  • Disenfranchisement, instability, and an ongoing commitment to inequity

  • Condescension