Adjunct professors vote to unionize

Adjunct professors at Dominican University in San Rafael and Saint Mary’s College in Moraga have voted to join Service Employees International Union Local 1021, union officials said.

The schools join three other private non-profit colleges in the Bay Area that have formed adjunct faculty unions and are in now in various stages of contract negotiations, union officials said.

Union organizer Jennifer Smith-Camejo said that colleges in Los Angeles and St. Louis, Missouri, did the same this week:

“There’s quite a bit of movement nationally.”

SEIU will represent roughly 400 adjuncts at St. Mary’s and roughly 300 at Dominican University. It currently represents more than 21,000 adjunct faculty members nationwide.

According to the SEIU, unionizing will provide these adjuncts with improved compensation, benefits and job security.