New Report describes Georgetown Experience with Adjunct Union

Georgetown's Kalmanovitz Center has performed an extensive review of the union campaign among adjunct faculty there. The report covers the entire process, from the first discussions among the instructors about their conditions to the ratification of a first contract. The authors found that the university's "Just Employment Policy" -- rooted in Catholic social teaching and established long before the adjuncts considered seeking a union -- ensured that the organizing effort moved forward in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Equally important, the authors find that the experience can "help lay to rest" concerns expressed by some Catholic leaders that collective bargaining might pose a risk to the Catholic identity of these schools. In the event, though, the bargaining process was focused on more mundane concerns about fairness, such as securing a $300 "course cancellation fee" for adjuncts whose work opportunities are withdrawn at a late date due to unanticipated circumstances. To read the report, go to Just Employment in Action: Adjunct Unionization and Contract Negotiation at Georgetown University.