Dive Brief:
- Non-tenured, full-time faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have come to a tentative agreement on their labor contract, stopping a strike that would have kept about 500 teaching, research and clinical faculty off the job for the final class days of the spring semester.
- The Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition, Local #6546, announced the tentative agreement covers “most high-priority issues for the union,” which sought greater employment security, protections for academic freedom and a role in faculty governance.
- A vote to ratify the contract will be held Thursday, and if approved, will represent the first contract for non-tenured faculty since they unionized in 2014 with the help of the American Federation of Teachers, Illinois Federation of Teachers, and American Association of University Professors.
Dive Insight:
Non-tenured, full-time faculty at the University of Illinois’ flagship campus held a two-day strike April 19 and 20, and they approved a five-day strike that began last Thursday. While faculty members acknowledged the situation they were putting students in by striking for the final class days of the spring semester, they said such measures were necessary because of the prolonged bargaining process.
Non-tenured faculty in a number of Boston-area schools have all unionized in the last couple years, in some ways leading a national wave. Tenured faculty who tried to unionize at Carroll College were shut down by the National Labor Relations Board in January, because they were considered management-level employees, marking a turn in case law precedent.