National Labor Relations Board hearings began Jan. 7 after the University challenged unionization efforts among research, teaching, practitioner and clinical-track faculty. The hearings were postponed due to the Los Angeles fires until Thursday. If the RTPC faculty wins the hearing, then a majority of eligible votes cast will decide whether or not a union will represent the group.

The faculty filed a petition to the NLRB to unionize Dec. 10, 2024, under the United Auto Workers as United Faculty-UAW. The same day, UF-UAW delivered a letter to President Carol Folt and Provost Andrew Guzman requesting that USC allow a unionization election.

The petition to unionize received union authorization cards from a “majority” of more than 2,500 RTPC faculty in all USC schools except the Keck School of Medicine, according to the UF-UAW website. Adjunct faculty at the School of Cinematic Arts are also excluded due to having unionized separately without a University challenge in February 2024.

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In a statement to the Daily Trojan, the University wrote that it respects the role of unions but has “serious” legal, academic and operational concerns about the unionization effort.

“All of our faculty have an equal voice, and exercise it regularly, in our system of shared governance over how the university operates,” the statement read. “We do not believe our faculty need a union to speak for them or that applicable law will permit it. We look forward to continuing to work, as we always have, in direct collaboration with our faculty on matters of importance to our university.” 

Sanjay Madhav, an associate professor of technology and applied computing practice at the Viterbi School of Engineering, said one reason for the unionization effort was because RTPC faculty are non-tenure track. This means they are contracted, sometimes for as short as one semester, and the University does not have to provide a reason for letting them go, leading to job insecurity. According to Madhav, the “vast majority” of classes students take at USC are taught by RTPC faculty.

“It’s difficult when you have lack of job security to plan the rest of your life,” Madhav said. “Whether it’s buy a house or start a family or things like that, it’s difficult to do when you’re not sure if your contract is going to be renewed next year.”

Madhav said a lack of a cost of living pay increase and benefit cuts were reasons the unionization effort began. Madhav said several of his colleagues had to leave the University due to those three issues.

“A lot of your favorite professors are probably non-tenured faculty,” Madhav said. “We all care about the University a lot, and we all care about the students a lot … By improving these things for us, it’s going to allow us to do an even better job, and it’s going to ultimately benefit everyone at the University, not just us.”

Kate Levin, an associate professor of writing at Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, said becoming unionized is beneficial for allowing for collective bargaining with USC rather than the University being able to “unilaterally” implement changes. 

“Without a union contract, faculty are quite vulnerable to the whims of whatever the administration decides is best,” Levin said. “Instead of being told what our working conditions will be by our employer, we need to sit down at the bargaining table like adults and hammer out agreements that really work for faculty and help us deliver the quality of education that our students deserve.”

The University wrote in its position statement to the NLRB that it considered faculty “managerial employees” or “supervisors” — who are unable to unionize through the NLRB — due to being represented in the Academic Senate and other faculty bodies.

Madhav said because these faculty bodies are advisory rather than decision-making, they are unable to influence some University decisions. According to him, faculty “was not consulted at all” regarding the cuts to Tuition Assistance Benefits — which partially or fully covered the degrees of University employees, their children and spouses.

Madhav said a similar argument was rejected by the NLRB during a 2016 attempt to unionize RTPC faculty at Roski School of Art and Design under the Service Employees International Union. Roski’s faculty voted to join the SEIU on Feb. 2, 2016, but after USC sued over the legality of the election, SEIU withdrew its position in 2019.

Kent Wong, the project director for labor and community partnerships at UCLA, former director of UCLA’s Labor Center and a lecturer at UCLA’s labor studies program, said the University’s argument is “really inconsistent” with recent NLRB rulings. Wong said all California State University and Los Angeles Community College faculty are unionized while also being members of an academic senate.

The University also wrote in its position statement that the NLRB itself is “unconstitutional” by “deny[ing] employers free speech and due process” through limiting the removal of judges and board members. 

“The NLRB’s structure is unconstitutional in that it limits the removal of NLRB Administrative Law Judges and Board Members, and permits Board Members to exercise executive, legislative, and judicial power in the same administrative proceeding,” the position statement read.

Wong said because the National Labor Relations Act — which created the NLRB — is still an active precedent, the University’s argument is “highly suspect.”

“The USC administration does not have a good reputation with regard to their labor relations. There has been a lot of unhappiness among other unionized workers within USC for some of their anti-union and anti-worker practices,” Wong said. “So the arguments that they’re making now, that non-tenured faculty are managers, I don’t think is valid, nor is their attempt to challenge the National Labor Relations Act.”

Levin said USC’s “alarming” position goes against its core values and would have “dramatic repercussions” for workers across the country. She said USC’s argument is similar to that made by SpaceX and Amazon. According to Reuters, the companies said their appeals were “effectively denied” by federal judges in Texas in November 2024.

“Is it worth it for USC to undertake this cynical alliance with some of the most anti-worker corporations in the country just to undermine its own faculty’s voice?” Levin said. “We say no. We say we should be allowed to vote, and we hope that they drop this reactionary and extreme legal objection to our petition for an election.”