Ideally, union membership will benefit all members equally. It’s a simple system, in theory: faculty unionize, pay dues, and bargain collectively. Everyone benefits. In practice, however, particularly as the numbers of part-time faculty continue to rise, the mechanics of union representation have become more complicated, even politicized. Full-time faculty, in many instances, compete with part-time faculty for office space, courses, benefits, research funding and pay. Thanks to shrinking higher ed. funding, and the rise of for profit universities, this competition between full-time and part-time faculty has intensified. Given this fact, can full-time and part-time faculty be represented equally well by the same union local? We put this question (and others) to the presidents of several faculty unions. We selected unions that represent only part-time and/or temporary faculty, as well as unified locals, where all faculty in a college or university are represented together.–P.D. Lesko, Executive Editor

TAA: Please give us a short history of your organizing work, and information about where you teach and what (if you do).

Charles Loiacono: I was a field representative and legislative representative for the United Federation of Teachers in New York City from 1966 to 1970 and subsequently became a NYC High School Principal. I joined the adjunct faculty at Nassau Community College as an adjunct English Professor in 1971. I was vice-president of the Adjunct Faculty Association (AFA) from the early 80s and elected president in the early 90s.

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