Why Collective Bargaining Rights Are Important

Collective bargaining rights and organizing have been *in the news more this year than usual, marking successes, failures, challenges but also, to be hoped, renewed interest and public support. Time to revisit basics, whether introduction or refresher. Addenda welcome: alternatives; questions; comments; alternate views. 

What is collective bargaining and why is it so important? Or better yet, why should you care? This question has come up frequently over the past year due to all the press surrounding recent actions by politicians who have passed or attempted to pass legislation to strip collective bargaining rights from public sector employees. What has been missing from the discussion is an actual explanation and understanding of the concept of collective bargaining.

So let’s start with the basics.

Virtual Meet & Greet: CPFA, NTT Faculty of the California #CommunityCollege system

... because getting to know one another ~ individuals, groups, networks ~ is part of building an NTT academic labor network and connecting existing networks for contingent academic labor. The fragmentation that has isolated us can become our strength as nodes on distributed networks, interconnected, sharing information and learning from one another, with no single organization, central hub, network or even ring to rule them all. 

I'm starting with CPFA because I grabbed the information when working a recent post. The overflowing feed reader, social media and correspondence make for a sizable if incomplete scratch list, which should be the next post. Feel free to add to it ~ tell us about community online or off in your corner of the adjunctiverse. Suggest new ways to meetup or new twists on old ways. 

California Part-time Faculty Association

Serving over 46,000 Non-tenure Track Faculty in California Community Colleges.

Coalition of Academic Labor: Third Annual Forum on Part Time Faculty Unions

Saturday, Nov 19, 9am-1pm, Washington DC. See below for details on topics and calls for presentations. This is late getting this out (my bad), so contact Anne McLeer to make sure the Forum is still accepting presentations.