Prior to SEIU Local 500's campaign to unite more workers together for greater strength in June 2008, Montgomery College's part-time professors were paid $880 per credit hour--much less than the $3,038 per credit hour paid to full-time professors for the exact same work. This meant that a professor at the Maryland college who taught four three-hour courses in each of two semesters--a pretty full course load--would earn just $21,120 per year. That's a poverty-level income in Montgomery County, as it is in many other counties around the U.S.
A year and a half later, there is much more for these professors to celebrate. On January 19, Montgomery College and its part-time faculty, represented by SEIU Local 500, unanimously ratified the first-ever collective bargaining agreement between the two. The agreement goes into affect immediately, and will run through June 30, 2011.
Highlights of the contract include:
* An immediate lump-sum bonus;
* An across-the-board 2.37 percent increase to all ESH rates;
* New commitments from the College to work with us to address pay disparity and health care access;
* Improved job security;
* Higher ESH limits and
* Improved paid time-off.
Following the vote to ratify, copies of the contract were signed by the College President Dr. Hercules Pinkney, SEIU Local 500 President Merle Cuttitta, and members of the part-time faculty bargaining team.
Chairman of the Montgomery College Board of Trustees, Dr. Michael Lin, called the contract "historic," and board member Stephen Kaufman said that his fellow board members were very pleased with it. > View photos from the signing here.
The contract is the culmination of nearly two years of organizing and over a year of negotiations by the part-timers, who teach nearly half of all classes at the College. "This first contract is a strong signal that the College is beginning to recognize the value of the contribution that its part-time faculty to make to the excellence of the institution," said Dan Moskowitz, fellow part-time professor in the Math Department and bargaining committee member. You can read the adjuncts' contract here.
