George Washington U. Drops Opposition to Adjunct Union and Strikes a Deal

After years of fighting to stay away from the bargaining table, George Washington University announced today that it had ratified its first collective-bargaining agreement with its part-time professors.

The deal was reached more than three years after adjuncts at the university voted to unionize, in an election certified by the National Labor Relations Board.

The university promptly called the process “flawed” and refused to recognize the union. That stance, however, was not greeted warmly by the Labor Relations Board. In December 2005 the board ruled that the university’s arguments were without merit, and that it was engaging in “unfair labor practices” by refusing to recognize the union.

Rather than go to the bargaining table, the university went to court, filing an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It lost that appeal a year later, when the court upheld the labor board’s decision.

With today’s ratification of a first contract, George Washington joins New School University and New York University among the few private American universities that bargain collectively with part-time professors.

According to the union, which is affiliated with Local 500 of the Service Employees International Union, the contract will bring “substantial pay improvements, long-sought job security, and a joint commitment to professional development.”

The university said, in a written statement, that it looked forward to “an ongoing constructive relationship” with the union. —John Gravois