Solidarity among faculty on the same campus may not come as a surprise. But a recent flurry of union organizing at higher education institutions in Southern California shows how much attention faculty are paying to those in unionization efforts outside of their own.
Experts say employees don’t take lightly the decision to sign their name on a union petition that will be given to their employers. One question that comes up is, “Can this work here?”
“Seeing other art and design colleges form unions has been really inspirational for me,” said Elizabeth Franks, associate director of recruitment and visitor experience in the office of admissions at CalArts. She’s part of a union campaign at the art school in Valencia.
Seeing ArtCenter College Design and Pratt Institute unionize recently, she said, made her think that improving pay and benefits through a union contract could happen on her campus.
Seeing what others can get
Many of the unions have organized under UAW, formerly known as the United Auto Workers. The national organization provided those campaigns with representatives from new unions at NYU, the New School for Social Research, and Barnard College to answer questions.