As faculty across USC push to unionize, adjuncts at the School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) are closely monitoring their efforts as they discuss next steps in bargaining.
United Faculty - United Auto Workers (UF-UAW), which hopes to represent the research, teaching, practitioner and clinical faculty (RTPC) at USC, is awaiting a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board allowing them to hold a vote to form a union.
Simultaneously, adjunct professors at SCA have been in active negotiations with the university since May, coming to 19 tentative agreements. They have still not come to a conclusion on non-discrimination policy, health benefits and wage increases, among other issues.
“We are actually talking about negotiating alongside the larger unit,” said Jody Wheeler, a member of the SCA adjuncts’ bargaining committee who teaches in the John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television. “Instead of just being about 250 people, which is about the size of the cinema school, it would be over 2,000 people negotiating with USC.”
Wheeler said the SCA adjuncts have not decided whether they will hold joint bargaining sessions, but this will be an ongoing conversation for the Adjunct Faculty Alliance - United Auto Workers (AFA-UAW) for the rest of the semester.
Robert Ramsey, who also teaches in the screen and television writing division of SCA, said the two unions could “link tables” while negotiating, which he described as having a warm relationship. This partnership may benefit both groups’ causes.
“What we’re hearing from the university is ‘We can’t change something for you unless we change it for everyone else,’ and that’s not going to happen,” Ramsey said. “With the rise of UF-UAW, I think that it might happen. That we have a shot at getting some of the things that are important to us.”
Ramsey said the reception of joining forces with other faculty has been mixed. While he said that many consider an alliance to be strategic, others are frustrated and gearing up to strike.
“Every member who considers the situation from any kind of strategic angle realizes that we will be in a better position with the UF-UAW in our pocket or on our side,” Ramsey said.
He said he fears a strike may hurt negotiations with future unions representing adjunct faculty at other USC schools.
“If we lose on second classes or on health benefits for all adjuncts or some of the other things we’re demanding, we’re establishing a precedent at USC that will make it more difficult for them, and that’s why it’s hard,” Ramsey said. “The bargaining committee has not yet called the membership to authorize a strike vote and there’s a reason for that.”
Jeremy Royce, who teaches in the SCA Division of Film & Television Production, said he did not want to presume that any larger union would collaborate with the AFA-UAW, since it has not been formed yet.
“There is no guarantee that there could be coordination across the two tables, but it would benefit everyone, in my opinion, if we were to work together,” Royce said. “It’s pretty clear that USC is going to try to divide us and use our contract against them, or vice versa.”
Negotiations have appeared to slow down this semester, according to the AFA-UAW bargaining tracker.
Aside from the wait to see what the NLRB decides about the larger union, actions taken by President Donald Trump, such as firing a member of the NLRB and going after diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in higher education, have also lengthened the timeline, Wheeler said.
Ramsey said that in the coming weeks, a survey will be sent to members on moving forward, with possibilities including a strike authorization vote for SCA faculty or linking tables with a future union – like UF-UAW.
Editor’s note: The story has been updated to correctly identify the UF-UAW, the prospective union representing teaching, practitioner and clinical faculty, which was earlier referred to as AF-UAW. The headline has also been updated for clarity.