Mounting frustration over low wages versus high living costs in Los Angeles fueled labor activism at USC. In the past six months, both graduate student workers and adjunct faculty at the School of Cinematic Arts staged strikes and voted to unionize, highlighting the challenges faced by many university employees.
The adjunct faculty of SCA, a school that boasts popular entertainment industry alumni like Matt Reeves, Shonda Rhimes, America Ferrera and many others, is currently in the process of legitimizing a bargaining committee, in hopes of a contract that will address their concerns around pay and benefits.
Strikes in November sparked the unionization drive. Ballots were mailed to the members on January 31 and the votings concluded on February 22. The Adjunct Faculty Alliance is voting to join the largest union for higher education in the United States, the United Auto Workers (UAW). UAW was originally organized for auto workers, but has now grown to represent workers in other fields, including over 100,000 academic workers in NYU, The New School and Harvard among others.
Joining the Adjunct Faculty Alliance-UAW through a majority vote would mean a unionized voice at the table, potentially addressing its core concerns: job security, compensation and benefits.
Gregg Heschong, an adjunct professor at SCA, says the idea of unionizing floated among the professors for years and finally came to life.
“I know we’re respected, I know we’re valued,” he said., “But in an arts program, the compensation and benefits [...] aren’t commensurate with the value given.”
Heschong says the dependence on adjunct faculty to make a program successful is significant outside the United States. Commitments beyond work hours and low pay with no benefits, even parking costs have been issues discussed in these strikes, according to professors who spoke to Hollywood Reporter.
A member of the Directors Guild of America, Heschong says, “I’ve been a lifelong supporter of union [organizations].” Being backed by a union would mean a representation to the collective demands, he emphasized.
“As a union or a guild, you have a preponderance of voices then all expressing the same wishes and concerns,” Heschong said.
February 17 was the last day to mail ballots to the National Labor Relations Board. The votes will be tallied live on Zoom Friday at 2 p.m. If the Adjunct Faculty Alliance (AFA-UAW) is certified by the National Labor Relations Board, a bargaining unit can be set up to represent the members and USC will be legally obligated to negotiate a contract.
Education strikes in California have been a common occurrence in the last few years. Last month, California State University reached a tentative deal with the union representing their faculty and academic workers on a wage hike and parental leave ending what was the largest strike by university faculty members in the U.S as per New York Times.
SCA’s unionization vote also closely follows the Graduate Student Workers Organizing Committee’s (GSWOC-USC) strikes which started last October, landing them a victorious deal.
Better compensation, appropriate training, travel reimbursement, parental leave and workplace protections were some of the numerous requests addressed in the tentative deal with GSWOC. The agreement also includes a 12% raise of the USC Graduate School stipend from $35,700 to $40,000 alongside sick days and bereavement leave.
GSWOC announced on December 7, after three days of voting, a majority (81.4%) voted ‘yes’ to ratify a contract with USC put forward by the bargaining committee. The announcement read, “over the past three years, consistent organizing and the efforts of thousands of workers made it possible for GSWs to win a first contract that secures significant wage gains, codifies new protections… and establishes new benefits… among many other big wins.”
The association is currently working with its first draft of the bylaws for a new Local Union within the United Auto Workers. Between February 29 and March 7, an online vote will also be held to ratify bylaws.
According to USC’s financial statements, about 58% of the University’s revenue was spent on salaries and benefits in the year ended June 30, 2023. The top earners among these were paid in millions of dollars, but others, like student workers, a minimum wage.
The highest paid person at USC is speculated to be the football team’s head coach Lincoln Riley, earning about $11 million a year according to the L.A. Times. Which places him above USC President Carol Folt, whose salary was around $4 million in the most recent publicly available tax form 990 filed in 2022. The numbers are not disclosed in the same manner as a public institution so it is difficult to assess salaries beyond the tax forms.
An adjunct salary however, differs markedly from what full-time professors earn at USC.
USC’s adjunct faculty are offered between $7,000 to $14,500 per course — across different schools including Annenberg, Herman Ostrow, Marshall among others — as mentioned in the job listings on the university’s website. This rounds up to about $48.33 an hour for the same amount of time. Over three semesters, this number would add up to yearly salaries between $21,000 and $43,500.
An average adjunct professor in L.A. makes about $76,717 a year according to Indeed. Glassdoor places the number between $81,000 to $135,000 a year. This estimates the average adjunct salary between $6,000 to $11,000 a month. In comparison with other universities, USC fares better.
For most adjunct faculty, a work week is considered 20 hours or less. According to information provided to Annenberg Media by a former adjunct at UCLA who did not wish to be identified, in 2021 the monthly salary was about $9,770.56, making the hourly rate of about $122.13. Teaching one Computer Science course in the regular session (not including summer or extension) between April 1 and June 30, 2021, the total compensation for the job was $11,138.43.
Francois Bar, Assistant Dean of Faculty Affairs at USC, says adjunct positions are intended to be filled by industry professionals who take up teaching roles to connect with the university and students. Apart from some extra hours (for training/service) which is required, benefits like healthcare, dental insurance, retirement savings and others are expected to be covered by their full-time jobs.
“One way to think about it is adjunct salaried people [...] have a real job somewhere else,” Bar explained, “and they’re doing [this] on the side so they don’t really need benefits [here].”
Typically adjunct faculty teach one course per year which is less than half-time, leaving them in a sticky position — only USC employees working more than half-time qualify for benefits.
This puts those whose primary source of income is teaching under pressure trying to keep up with the high living costs without being backed by an institution. The roles are also hired for on a single-term basis with no guaranteed pathway into full-time roles.
The adjunct faculty, that were about 70% of all teaching members at SCA in Fall 2023, hope to have their pay and benefit concerns addressed through this voting.
Adjunct faculty across other universities in the country like New York University and The New School have also previously demonstrated the power of unionization in negotiating to have their voices heard.
Editor’s note: A clarification about USC’s publicly disclosed tax information was added.
Added additional background information about the former UCLA adjunct professor who was included in this story.