Service Employees International Union Local 500, which represents adjunct faculty at Georgetown University, reports that Trinity Washington University adjuncts have now chosen union representation (74 voting yes, 54 voting no). They join a wave of non-tenured university and college instructors across the United States -- at public and private institutions -- who have organized to address poor working conditions. America's higher education institutions have contracted out a rapidly growing share of their instruction to these temporary profs who are paid on a piecework basis. Without a union contract they suffer from low wages, high job insecurity, and few employment benefits.

Local 500 members also teach at institutions like GWU, American University, Howard University, and Montgomery College. In the Washington DC metropolitan area, Catholic University of America is the only major university where adjuncts do not yet enjoy union representation.