While there are differences in the wording of the bills in various states, but a couple of principles run through all of them:
- equal pay for equal work
- health and other benefits for part time faculty
- reversing the trend of relying on part time faculty instead of a full time tenured instructored corps.
The strongest language for equal pay is in the Washington state bill:
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WA Senate Bill 5020
Section 3
Paragraph2
...part-time faculty must be paid on a pro rata basis, based upon the percentage of full-time faculty teaching load. For example, part-time faculty who work fifty percent of a full-time teaching load must be paid fifty percent of a full time salary.
WA LEGISLATURE PAGE ON BILL
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Other paragraphs work out the consequences of that like how you move up the scale, so if you work a 50% load, you move up 50% of a full time step. That sounds fair.
Here in California, the AFT has a bill in the pipe, AB 1343, and CPFA, the California Part Time Faculty Association, has introduced a similar bill, AB 591.
You can track both by going to the California legislation search page and entering the bill number (for some reason, they don't keep set addresses for the bills).
You can see all the FACE bills and info on the FACE campaign at FACE.AFT.org.
If you live in one of the states where they have these bills, write your state legislators telling them to support it, and find out from the AFT who is running your states campaign and ask what you can do to help. If you aren't in one of those states, call up your union leadership and ask why they haven't introduced a similar bill.
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