By Joshua Phelps
The Scene staff
Adjunct faculty at St. Louis Community College voted 222-5 to approve their first employment contract as members of Service Employees International Union.
It’s the culmination of a three-year process, starting with a union campaign and adjunct vote to organize in 2015 and continuing with on-and-off contract negotiations, campus rallies and contentious STLCC board meetings.
“This contract is a huge step forward for STLCC adjunct faculty and contains improvements to wages, job-security language and working conditions,” according to a March 6 email from SEIU Local 1 notifying adjuncts of election results.
The contract must be approved by the STLCC Board of Trustees before it takes effect. Provisions would be retroactive to Dec. 1, 2017, and expire on June 30, 2020.
The contract gives adjuncts a 3 percent pay raise and access to a 403(b) tax-shelter annuity and other benefits; updates the course-assignment process and handling of personnel files and student complaints; and establishes a part-time faculty administration committee to review ongoing matters.
“Over 200 people that are in the union voted for this contract,” said Brett Williams, a union bargaining-committee member and adjunct art professor on the Forest Park campus. “That shows that they believe in what we are doing.”
Union dues of 2 percent will be taken out of paychecks monthly. But adjuncts will pay them only when actively teaching, according to Williams.
SEIU Organizing Coordinator Stacie Manuel did not respond to repeated calls and emails seeking answers to questions, such as how many adjuncts have joined the union and what are its goals for the future.
“We will have a wage reopener either in March or April,” Williams said. “The contract we have now is in effect for two years. At the end of the length of that contract, we will go back in negotiations for everything, not just pay.”
Adjunct is another name for part-time faculty. STLCC employs about 700 adjuncts on its four campuses, according to Robert Thumith, director of employee and labor relations. Thumith and Kedra Tolson, the college’s executive director of marketing and communications, declined to comment on the new contract.
“The college has not received any official confirmation that it has been ratified by the membership,” Thumith said.
As soon as the college hears from SEIU, he said, a board vote will be scheduled. Its next meeting is April 26 on the Florissant Valley campus.
Some 227 adjuncts voted on the contract Feb. 21-23 by email. Williams said he was happy with the turnout. “I feel really great about that,” he said. “That nears the votes (that) formed the union in the first place.”
Adjuncts voted 188-15 to unionize on Oct. 31, 2015.
Williams said the bargaining committee made great strides by getting hiring agreements included in the contract, noting the college can’t hire someone off the street to replace adjuncts if they’ve been employed by STLCC for a certain amount of time.
Now that a contract has been approved by adjuncts, SEIU appears to be working toward a goal of getting more of them to become union members.
“Moving forward, in order to build the strongest organization that is able to continue winning stronger contracts, it is critical that faculty continue to sign up to join SEIU Local 1, and to continue to fight for more funding from the Legislature,” the March 6 email states.
“As part of the collective bargaining agreement, your negotiating team will return to the table in a few weeks and negotiate over the wage rate, so be sure to join SEIU Local 1 to demonstrate power and win the strongest increases.”