More than 50 adjunct professors at the School of Cinematic Arts rallied Aug. 29 amid the fourth month of contract negotiations with the University.
The faculty are arguing that USC is stalling at the bargaining table and said adjuncts hoped to have reached a contract before the start of the academic year.
“We told them we wanted to finish this contract and have it ready to go by the beginning of this academic year, which is right now, and we are not anywhere close,” said Robert Ramsey, who has taught at SCA for 12 years and is teaching two courses this semester in the John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television.
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The rally started at noon and lasted 30 minutes. Adjunct faculty members spoke, as well as Jody Wheeler, a member of the bargaining committee, Midge Costin, a tenured faculty member and the Vice President of the Writers Guild of America West, Michele Mulroney. “The AFA has the unwavering support of all of Hollywood labor,” Mulroney said.
Members of the bargaining team say that USC has been slow in responding to their proposals and has not responded to their initial proposal on wages, which they submitted in May.
“A strike vote, a strike authorization and a strike are not off the table,” said Dara Resnik, an adjunct professor teaching one section of the graduate-level course Producing the Screenplay this semester, who serves on the bargaining committee.
But, Christopher Guerrero, another member of the bargaining team, said whether a strike authorization vote is held depends on how the membership feels.
Jody Wheeler, who also serves on the bargaining committee and spoke at the rally, said the proposals they are receiving from the University mirror USC’s existing policy.
“You know how when you were in school and you were reading a citation and you were trying to figure out how to rewrite it in your own words so that you weren’t plagiarizing? Basically, the proposal[s] so far have essentially been the current policies just restated in a slightly different way,” said Wheeler, who teaches in the John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television.
SCA wrote in a statement to the Daily Trojan Thursday they “are bargaining in good faith and committed to reaching a fair contract.”
This would be the Adjunct Faculty Alliance’s first contract since voting to unionize in February under the United Auto Workers. The University and the union have reached 16 tentative agreements including on paid training and on the grievance and arbitration article. Their latest tentative agreement was reached Aug. 29 following the rally and was on the topic of parking and transit.
The school wrote that adjunct professors are highly valued and ” bring a wealth of expertise and experience to the school.”
“The reason the administration and the ivory tower earn as much as they do is because of all of us,” said Bonnie Garvin, who works in the writing division. “They’re able to get six and seven-figure salaries because we’re doing all the heavy lifting,”
Negotiations occurred Aug. 29 and are set to continue Aug. 30. Outstanding issues include union security, health benefits and wages, among others.
