Tired of being paid as low as $2,500 per semester-long course and receiving no health insurance or pension---and seeking more paid office time and greater access to electronic communications in order to be better able to help their students---a majority of adjunct professors at New York University voted in favor of union representation last month. However, faced with a decision between the United Auto Workers who earlier this year organized NYU's graduate assistants (see WIT for March 21, 2002), and the American Federation of Teachers who have long represented NYU's clerical and technical staff, no union won a majority of the ballots cast. The results of the necessary runoff election were announced by the National Labor Relations Board yesterday, with the UAW winning and becoming the exclusive bargaining representative of NYU's adjuncts.
See "When Are Teachers Auto Workers? When They're N.Y.U. Adjuncts", KAREN W. ARENSON, The New York Times, July 9, 2002