A group of part-time professors at the University of Cincinnati began their campaign Monday to pressure the school's administration to formally recognize their union under the American Federation of Teachers.

        Donning red T-shirts that read: “Equal Pay for Equal Work,” members of UC's Adjunct Faculty Association made the announcement in the downtown offices of Cincinnati's AFL-CIO Labor Council.

        “We assume it will take some pressure,” said Tom Mooney, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers. “But we're prepared to put on as much pressure as we have to.”

        The move by part-time faculty at UC is the latest in a series of labor disputes on college and university campuses nationwide, which have involved adjuncts - essentially part-time professors - lecturers and graduate students. At UC, adjuncts are the only ones trying to start a union.

        Since Ohio's labor laws prohibit part-time employees from forming unions, the group at UC would have to get the administration to voluntarily agree to bargain. That decision would ultimately be made by the university board of trustees, but that will be a long way off. Members of the adjunct association are only now informally contacting the 1,495 non-represented part-time faculty. The next step will be to send out representation cards for them to sign. A support committee of local AFL-CIO members will help in the effort.

        “It's outrageous what's happening,” said Dan Radford, secretary-treasurer of the local AFL-CIO. “The board of trustees and (President) Joe Steger should be ashamed of themselves.”

        The university is not anti-union, said UC spokesman Greg Hand.

        “The reluctance is based on having two separate bargaining environments with two separate faculty groups dealing with the same student body,” he said.

        These part-time faculty members want better pay and benefits, job security, paid office hours and more influence in the decisions made regarding them. But, UC argues, part-time faculty have an avenue to address their concerns.

        UC pays a minimum of $500 per quarter credit hour for teaching in a baccalaureate college. That minimum is for people who are at the lowest ranks as beginning adjuncts, said Karen Faaborg, vice provost for faculty and administrative services.

        The part-time faculty forum and the part-time faculty advisory committee give adjuncts a voice that goes directly to the provost and a committee charged with recommending solutions. The forum has two representatives on the faculty senate.

        “In general, the goals of the adjunct faculty and of the administration are the same: to provide an improved professional environment for those who work here part-time,” she said.

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