Dear Tompkins County Workers' Center Members and Supporters:
Hopefully you know that there is a sprouting and thriving movement by Adjunct Professors at colleges and universities around the country to call attention to their plight (see our recent cover story article in our most recent newsletter). In Tompkins and Cortland counties, we have no shortage of Adjunct Professors who are beginning to organize to improve their contingent working conditions.
We are coming to you now in hopes that you can take an action by Wednesday, November 5th, on behalf of the Adjunct Professors union, known as the TC3 Adjunct Association, that has taken root at Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) in Dryden, NY. (We say the 5th of November because the 6th is when the TC3 Board meets for its Annual Retreat.) A strong majority of Adjuncts at TC3 have already signed authorization cards indicating their desire for unionization. (The TC3 Adjunct Association is affiliated with NYSUT, NEA, AFT, AFL-CIO as the exclusive bargaining agent for TC3’s 200+ adjuncts.)
On October 22, 2014, the union filed these authorization forms with the Public Employees Relations Board (PERB). The TC3 Administration and Board has one month to respond and indicate it's willingness to 'voluntarily recognize' the TC3 union, or else drag the already-strong majority will of the Adjuncts to be organized into a union into a legal battle that will cost taxpayers more money!
We are asking that if you live in Cortland or Tompkins County and you agree that workers should have the right to join together in representing their own interests in the form of a union, that you click here to send an email message to the TC3 Board as well as the TC3 President, Carl Haynes, indicating that you don't want taxpayer dollars--your taxpayer dollars!--wasted on a legal battle by the College to fight the union efforts by the Adjuncts! The TC3 Board needs to know that the Tompkins and Cortland communities are supportive of the TC3 Adjunct Association's efforts!
Additionally, we plan to show up, en masse, to the TC3 next scheduled Board Meeting on Thursday, November 20th, at 5:30 p.m., along with some members of the Adjuncts Organizing Committee to show our support for their unionizing efforts. If you think you can make this, please let us know by responding to this email or by calling 607-269-0409.
