Trend Watching: Jack vs WEA, #StateSOS, Taylorized!

fresh from the Sunday morning catch in my rss feed reader, 

Adjuncts vs. full-time faculty, a Community College Spotlight column, covers mostly Jack & WA HB1631 kerfuffle (why Jack Longmate along with Wisconsin protesters and former AUC classmates occupying Tahrir Square are my personal heroes). In my personal opinion, "Jack vs WEA" counts as a trend because we're going to see more of it, official rhetoric to the contrary not withstanding. Read your labor history. Nothing new under the sun. Wisconsin action, new NH union, and adjuncts at Chicago's Columbia College swapped for even cheaper models are all briefly touched on.

In a telling quote closing her piece, Joanne Jacobs writes, "Years ago, I sat next to the chancellor of the local community college district at a dinner. I told him my sister was a part-time instructor at several community colleges with no benefits, no job security and not even a mail slot to call her own. 'Closest thing to slave labor we have in this country!' he said."

from David Ruccio's occasional links & commentary

(PS, Green Bay Packers back protesters too)

9 things you need to know about the Wisconsin action: it's not just about us or even just public employees. George Lakoff why and What Conservatives Really Want. Massive union busting affects all adjuncts - even ones who can't legally organize or don't want to. Don't let them get away with using Public Employees as 21st-Century Welfare Queens. Collective Bargaining is a Human Right, whether or not individuals elect to organize and use it. Remember: Capital is organized; if labor isn't, the redistribution continues. There is a move to make collective bargaining in the public schools illegal again. If that happens, all teachers could become real proletarians, from professoriat to proletariat in just a few short steps. #StateSOS: Wisconsin is our front line.

Speaking of trends to watch....

Taylorized! Cast Out in Chicago or trading down. Leave a comment at Inside Higher Ed. Who in their right minds would think this is an isolated incident. Where else is it happening?

Campus-wide, as many as 100 adjunct faculty members, many of them with 15 to 20 years of service, have had their course loads reduced, often without notice, with sections either canceled or staffed instead by younger and less expensive teachers, according to the union. Columbia's administration contests the union's tally and says it has asked the union for data to back up its assertion but been rebuffed; the union worries that handing over its list would expose its members to potential retaliation. Inside Higher Ed has seen a partial list of affected part-time faculty members, with initials appearing instead of names, and counted 30 across three departments, in addition to the dozen faculty in arts, entertainment and media management already cited.