Outcome: one NYS adjunct's UI claim this summer

Yesterday, four weeks' payment that had been held up pending an investigation into the extent to which my Fall PT contract constituted "reasonable assurance of future employment," in the Labor Law's phrase, were direct-deposited in my account. Three weeks' payment had been made in July before the investigation; all except one, a week during which I worked a day on a freelance job, were for $274, the amount determined based on my highest previous year's quarter's income, plus a $25 Federal supplement recently passed. As indicated in earlier posts, the NYS Department of Labor's online claim form asks specific questions of educators, giving us ample opportunity to explain our trepidation at the promise of Fall courses (in my case, my assigned Spring courses were cancelled, and although I received others later, that was enough to make me wonder). Now, as of this week, all three of my Fall courses are full, according to our school's online registration system, so I won't claim any more weeks. But receiving this assistance for seven of this summer's weeks -- almost exactly equal to a one-week job I had in June grading AP essays for ETS, interestingly enough --made this summer exponentially more tolerable for me than last, psychologically as well as financially. Meanwhile, the legislation for guaranteeing adjunct UI that was introduced earlier this summer -- corresponding bills S4123a and A613a -- haven't made it the schedule for voting on this session that just opened either, yet, though I'm told that they might come up at any time. In my initial gratitude at my case's resolution I wondered about the need for such legislation, but without the details of how and why the investigation into my case was resolved, I don't know whether it was a single-case decision or a precedent. Either way, it's no reason NOT to continue pressing for passage of these bills, which would serve as notice to schools of the true full cost of employing teachers at length on short-term contracts as well as to adjuncts without summer work that they do have an alternative to starving, borrowing, or dipping into savings while waiting for their poverty-level jobs to start.

I'd be interested in hearing from any others in NYS or other states who might have filed this summer, with either similar or less favorable outcomes.

UI for adjuncts

Below's a handy reference. Anecdotally, successfully filing for (claiming) unemployment benefits can be an iffy affair, even within a single state: sometimes a contract for fall, e.g., can be interepreted as "reasonable assurance of future employment," which is the language of current Labor Law in New York state, so written to prevent schoolteachers who really DO have such assurance from trying to collect. In New York State now, as in other states, legislation specifically aimed at allowing contingent higher-education faculty to qualify for benefits during summer and winter breaks -- regardless of appointments that are contingent upon enrollment -- has been introduced. Meanwhile, this state's online unemployment filing system asks specific questions about higher-education faculty -- why, if we're claiming, we think our future contracts doubtful -- and some payment is being made, even without the legislation.

"Access to Unemployment Insurance Benefits for Contingent Faculty", by 
Berry, Stewart and Worthen, published by Chicago COCAL, 2008. Order 
from  Email or call number above for bulk orders.

Summer unemployment insurance for adjuncts

To all NYS Residents,

A bill has been drafted in the state legislature that is aimed specifically at contingent faculty rights: S4123 (Onorato) and A0613-(John) would allow faculty to collect Unemployment Insurance over summer and winter breaks.

Adjuncts have usually been denied Unemployment Insurance on grounds that said contracts constitute "reasonable assurance" of future employment, even though in fact the courses can always be cut at the last minute, and the adjunct's just out of luck.

This is a huge issue nationwide in contingent-faculty rights, and in NYS the idea of this bill has been debated -- in committee, between SUNY-UUP and CUNY-PSC, etc. -- for years.

Now it's finally coming to a vote on the floors of the NYS Legislature. So please go online to http://www.uupinfo.org or: http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/contactelectedofficials_12916.htm

This bill is backed by the AFL-CIO and has a real chance of passage. Please take a minute to show your support NOW.

And if you're not from New York state, please contribute details and anecdotes about how your state deals with this issue.

Steve Street, Buffalo State
Peter D.G. Brown, SUNY New Paltz

____________________________

New Faculty Majority Day: more ideas on another blog

Also, for extra thoroughness in information dissemination, more on these same activities is posted on a parallel blog with a University of California focus

http://changinguniversities.blogspot.com/

as well as partially duplicated below, with various new ideas for and links to activities for April 30:

F a c e b o o k D i s c u s s i o n G r o u p
h t t p : / / w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m / g r o u p . p h p ? g i d = 7 4 9 7 6 9 4 0 9 3 7 & r e f = m f
P o s t e d b y B o b S a m u e l s

N e w M a j o r i t y F a c u l t y D a y V i d e o s
Please go  to  the  y o u t u b  s i t e  t o  p o s t  y o u r  o w n  v i d e o t e s t i m o n i a l s  o f what it  i s     l i k e     t o     t e a c h     o u t s i d e o f  t h e     t e n u r e  s y s t e m
h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = Y b A X u O q b J x 4

A l s o p o s t y o u r w r i t t e n s t o r i e s a t : 
h t t p : / / e q u a l p a y f o r e q u a l w o r k . b l o g s p o t . c o m / 2 0 0 9 / 0 3 / n e w - m a j o r i t y - f a c u l t y - c o l l e c t i n g - s t o r i e s . h t m l
P o s t e d b y B o b S a m u e l s

S l o g a n s f o r N e w M a j o r i t y F a c u l t y D a y S i g n s :

E q u a l P a y f o r E q u a l W o r k !

D e f e n d O u r T e a c h e r s !

S u p p o r t O u r S t u d e n t s !

F i g h t B u d g e t C u t s !

E d u c a t i o n S h o u l d b e a U C [or your school's initials] P r i o r i t y !

U C [or your school's initials] = A I G

P r o t e c t O u r L i b r a r i e s !


T a k e B a c k O u r U n i v e r s i t y !


D u d e , W h e r e s m y U n i v e r s i t y ?

P o s t e d b y B o b S a m u e l s

N e w M a j o r i t y F a c u l t y D a y Sample T a l k i n g P o i n t s


For text, see http://changinguniversities.blogspot.com/


Thursday, A P R I L 3 0 t h 2 0 0 8: N e w M a j o r i t y F a c u l t y D a y

Higher Ed in The Nation

More visibility ... not just trade pubs, student & local press... there's an article in The Nation, Higher Education Takes a Hit, about "contingent labor" in higher education, "positions that have increasingly replaced full-time, tenure-track jobs" but "pay only about a fourth as much, per course, as tenure-track positions, seldom come with benefits and offer little job security or possibility of advancement."

Yes, we already know all that - old news to us - but how nice to read it in a national magazine. And even nicer for The New Faculty Majority (The Coalition) to get a tip of the hat:

Despite these organizing successes, some adjuncts say that under the sponsorship of some national organizations, like the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which also represent full-time faculty, they often get short shrift.

That may soon change, if fourteen adjunct activists from across the country succeed in forming the New Faculty Majority: The National Coalition for Adjunct and Contingent Equity. The group, whose organizers first connected on a list-serv, is still in the planning stages. But co-chairs of the organizing committee Deborah Louis and Maria Maisto said they have already received membership requests.

What next? Get the word out. Even 'juncts can go viral.

Read the article, forward it, share it on Facebook, bookmark, review & rate it on the social bookmarking sites (Digg, BuzzFlash, Reddit, Delicious, StumbleUpon & so on). After all, to cite NFM co-chair Deb Louis (from the article), "Now, with all the Internet potential, it becomes a whole different ballgame."

While you're at it, write a Web Letter about the article. According toThe Nation's Web Letter page, "Web Letters are continuously published e-mails from real people, signed with their real names. No registration is required. Each article page on The Nation includes a Web Letters link."