> I'd like to have a union at OSU, too. As of now, neither profs, nor GAs,
> nor adjuncts are organized here. We have a group of grads who want a
> union, but the size of this group has fluctuated (some left here -- because
> they got jobs, transferred, quit academe altogether, etc. -- and others
> come and go) wildly for the last couple of years, and we've yet to attain
> what looks like a critical mass. In Ohio, grad students are specifically
> named and excluded from the sections that deal with collective bargaining
> of the Ohio Revised Code, so I think it will be one hell of a struggle even
> with a critical mass.
If you wait for that critical mass... it'll never come. Seriously, there's just no way to really tell, we thought that the Oregon State folks would have a ferocious fight on their hands, but it turned out grads were rip-roaring ready to unionize. Of course, working conditions are very different for grads, adjuncts and profs, so three separate organizations may be appropriate. Also note that collective bargaining laws can be changed, assuming you mount a sustained campaign, hit the press, mobilize other unions, etc.; in Oregon, the Employment Relations Board had to revisit the issue and concluded that grads were indeed employees of the state, and not mere students (as the University had argued) and could thus unionize. Organizing campaigns nowadays need to be smart, media-savvy, strongly rooted in community activism and be up on the legal issues. But Ohio State is state-funded, right? If so, there may be public employee laws which can help you, too.
> BTW, are adjuncts organized anywhere in the US? If so, how?
Lots, mostly as part of regular faculty unions (AFT, NEA, and now also UE, UAW, SEIU) and whatnot (it's because it's harder to mobilize adjuncts and to sustain that mobilization). There's an interesting article on the adjunctification of academic labor at:
http://208.226.92.11/~johnston/undrclsintro.htm
by Paul Johnston, a Sociology prof at Santa Cruz.
-- Dennis