Join peers at nine other New Jersey community colleges to work for better conditions
EDISON…”Bergen Community College adjuncts have now joined with the many other New Jersey colleges which have had unions for years,” said Sandy Shevack, an adjunct Sociology Professor active in forming a new American Federation of Teachers union. “Together we can promote and protect our professional contributions to education.”
Shevack is one of 678 adjunct professors who will now bargain with the college after a majority of the part-time faculty members agreed to unionize. The next step for the new group is to bargain a contract with Bergen Community College, the state’s largest community college, with 31,000 students.
“The union will give adjuncts at Bergen a much-needed voice on compensation and working conditions, which will allow us to better serve the students of Bergen Community College,” said Ted Arin, a chemistry adjunct in the Physical Sciences Department. Adjuncts at other unionized community colleges have negotiated benefits such as progressively better pay with experience, sick days, paid professional development courses and timely notifications of reappointments since adjuncts’ classes are often cancelled based on enrollment.