USC’s professors have taken a major step toward forming a union, organizers of the effort made public late Thursday on the eve of the last day of the semester. According to their Instagram, the United Faculty - United Auto Workers (UF-UAW) is “committed to making USC a more equitable institution.”
By unionizing, faculty can collectively bargain for changes on a variety of things including increased research funding, fair visa and immigration policies, benefits, and pay. The group posted on social media calling for other members of USC faculty to sign their union cards.
“I know colleagues who have lost eligibility for benefits with no notice and no say in the matter,” Pete Anthony, a Thornton School of Music professor, said in a post to the UF-UAW Instagram. “I support forming a union so this cornerstone of a stable middle-class life is something faculty can secure in a legally binding union contract.”
USC faculty tried to form a union in 2015, but the attempts were not successful. In recent years, employee groups across USC from graduate students to housing workers have formed unions to bargain with the administration.
When reached for comment, a representative from the union declined to share the count of faculty who have already signed union cards, citing only “a majority” of USC’s non-tenured track faculty.
UF-UAW, which is organized with the national union, United Auto Workers, is composed of faculty members from across schools at USC, including the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, and Viterbi School of Engineering.
This follows the university’s graduate students securing their union by 93 percent in February 2023 and the Cinema School adjuncts forming their union by a 94 percent vote earlier this year.
The faculty has not yet officially unionized. They must either file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board or receive a guarantee from USC that they may conduct a free and fair election to unionize, or both.
This is a developing story.