“How I Joined the Union” —OR “Invisible Ink”

“How I Joined the Union”

—OR

“Invisible Ink”

by Red Emma

Dissent 4 – March 27, 1998

Red

Red Emma teaches writing part-time at Irvine Valley College. His activist politics demand his union membership, but in five years of teaching here, not once has anybody ever invited or encouraged him to join the union or provided him materials regarding representation by his local.

Red Emma wonders why. Red Emma organizes other part time faculty members, many of whom also wonder. (There is collective wondering a-plenty at our bi-weekly organizing meetings.) Red Emma calls the union rep, who does not return phone calls, but later leaves photocopies of the application materials, with the full deduction for dues (full-time $70/month) written in.

But, surely, this amount can't apply to adjunct faculty. Can it?

More phone calls by R.E., no answers from R.C. [Ray Chandos], the union rep. Similar calls to SOCCCD payroll. They suggest talking to Lee Walker, advice so laughable Red Emma wets his pants just thinking about it.

So, finally, the Red One just signs the form and, a few days later, receives a membership card, signed by the rep. In the payroll deduction box, either written in invisible ink, or perhaps not written at all, Emma's monthly payroll deduction. None at all. Zero. Blank. Free!

Red Emma, a dues paying (such as they aren't) SOCCCD-Faculty Association member becomes the following week the single adjunct faculty member to actually vote on the contract. (For the record--"No.") Of over two hundred part-time faculty presumably represented by the F.A. bargaining unit, he's the only one to actually have a direct say on the contract (a wretched thing).

In fact, Red Emma spoke with Debra Landre, CCA President at the recent COFO (Conference of Faculty Organizations) workshop at Long Beach City College (also attended by Richard Lewis of Saddleback, who carries a license to wear those suspenders). President Landre assured Redness that in fact PART-TIME UNION DUES ARE $14.00 monthly. Landre expressed her cautious dismay (some kind of automatic administrative reflex lately) that IVC adjunct faculty have not been solicited for membership and offered demure congratulations on my joining up. I asked her for union promotion materials; i.e. brochures, buttons, condoms or those cute little keyring flashlights. This was, judging from her delighted, if confused response, apparently the only time in the history of the academic universe that anybody's begged to join the proud union.

Stay tuned. Red Emma is eager to report the amount dislodged this coming payday from his huge part-time paycheck by payroll and the local.

Invisible ink, if I remember from my Hardy Boys reading days, is revealed by rubbing charcoal on it or otherwise causing it to come into contact with heat, an element I encourage all part timers to apply to this confused union, which purports to represent us. Do they want us as members or not? Stand by.

–RE

See PART II of this series

Andrew Tonkovich