Leaders of NYSUT's adjunct faculty local union at Pace University feel vindicated following a federal circuit court decision that potentially means adding hundreds of members to a bargaining unit of 750 members.

The January decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals, Washington, D.C. Circuit, affirmed the National Labor Relations Board's original certification of this bargaining unit and the inclusion of adjuncts who were not eligible to vote in the 2004 representation election.

The decision upholds an earlier ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that clarified the board's original certification order for the Union of Adjunct Faculty at Pace.

The certification order included in the bargaining unit all adjuncts who taught at least three credit hours or 45 hours in a semester.

In a prior ruling, the NLRB had limited the eligibility to vote to those adjuncts who were employed at the time and had taught at least one additional prior semester at Pace.

After the election, the university appealed the certification of adjuncts, arguing the bargaining unit should have included only those adjuncts eligible to vote.

Wasting time

"The decision by Pace to appeal this fair and reasonable ruling — which had a clear precedent in other recent NLRB decisions — wasted precious time," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "The time spent fighting this in court must now be made up in an accelerated way at the bargaining table."

John Pawlowski, president of the Union of Adjunct Faculty at Pace, cheered the court's ruling.

"We can hopefully go forward in bargaining and make real progress on the real issues of salary, job security and benefits," he said.

With the ruling, Iannuzzi and United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called on union members who are Pace University alums to e-mail Pace President Stephen Friedman (sfriedman@pace.edu) and urge good-faith negotiations. The UFT is NYSUT's affiliate in New York City schools.

Joined by fellow unionists, the adjuncts' union picketed at Pace campuses in Westchester County and Manhattan in December.

Weingarten, a member of NYSUT's Board of Directors, joined the Manhattan pickets, attempting to deliver a "holiday present" of coal to Pace University administrators.

Contract talks between Pace and the UAFP began in 2004, but slowed during the legal dispute. The two sides returned to the bargaining table this month.

— Darryl McGrath and Matt Smith