Dear OurMedia/NuestrosMedios members,

Many of you have supported the struggle over the years by part-time faculty ("adjuncts") at the University of San Francisco against Jesuit-led management and management-aligned full-time faculty who serve as their "designees."  The latter are department chairs who, problematically, serve as management but are also members of a separate full-time faculty union.  My adjunct colleagues and I are grateful for your support.
You can help again by contributing to the USF Adjunct Legal Fund on GoFundMe.  The fund aids the struggle against USF management's censorship of gig faculty workers and attempts to bust our union.  Details are below and on the site: https://www.gofundme.com/f/usf-adjunct-legal-fund

Background
In fall 2019 management at the University of San Francisco banned me, then-President of the USF Part-Time Faculty Association (PTFA, AFT Local 6590), from presenting at or attending the 2019 OURMedia12 conference in Brussels.  I was scheduled to discuss “Checking Your Privilege: Challenging Tenured Faculty’s Hegemony Over the Majority Part-Timers in the Campus ‘Gig’ Economy” (See MediaProf.org/om2019-brussels). The presentation focused on global questions of scholarship and activism, conflict transformation, power, inequalities, privilege, and social justice from a perspective of marginalized gig faculty within a "progressive" academic institution that embraces the motto, "Change the World From Here."  The issues and values have been central to OM/NM since its founding in 2001.

The management ban on conference participation continues today, as do retaliations for union activities.  It is ostensibly unlawful in the US to silence "free" speech, muzzle union voices, retaliate for union activity, and violate academic freedom. The union filed charges in 2019 with appropriate US agencies (the National Labor Relations Board, NLRB); the charges are now making their way through the grievance process.  [See background and Unfair Labor Practices filed with the National Labor Relations Board  on  https://sites.google.com/site/ptfaarchive/adjunct-news/NLRB-2019 ]

However, the struggle depends on adjuncts’ resources to pay for legal fees, individually and collectively.  In a union of part-timers, dues and the legal fund to fight against management is far less than USF’s ability and willingness to spend student tuition dollars to crush campus unions and censor faculty.

You can help fight USF management's censorship and union-busting by contributing to the USF Adjunct Legal Fund.   https://www.gofundme.com/f/usf-adjunct-legal-fund

Thanks for your continued support!

In solidarity,
John Higgins
USF Adjunct Professor
Former President, USF-PTFA, AFT Local 6590
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https://www.gofundme.com/f/usf-adjunct-legal-fund

USF Adjunct Legal Fund:
Fight #USFca Management’s Censorship and Union-busting against Part time “Gig” Teachers.

What's the funding for?
All contributions go to legal fees - to help me and other part-time (“adjunct”) teachers at a private, Jesuit university fight management retaliation against union officers and activist members. And to fight management’s attempts at censorship, keeping us from informing the public about management’s unlawful actions.

I'm John, a former president of our part-time faculty union.  I’m personally involved in the current struggle against management at the Jesuit-led University of San Francisco CA (USF or #USFca).  Since fall 2018 I have been threatened with retaliation, harassed, and then suspended for 1 year without pay by management because of union activities while serving as president.  

USF management censored me as union president and continues to do so now: forbidding me from presenting at conferences about USF’s violations of labor laws and our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and posing questions of inequality and social justice at an ostensibly progressive institution that embraces the motto, "Change the World From Here."  Union rights provided by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) have been ignored.  Management violated individual rights regarding Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom; the conferences were outside of USF responsibilities and no university funding or work time was involved.  [See background and Unfair Labor Practices filed with the National Labor Relations Board https://sites.google.com/site/ptfaarchive/adjunct-news/NLRB-2019 )

USF management’s actions violate USF’s Mission and Core Values that adjuncts hold close to their hearts.  Management’s actions are also unlawful.  But, since USF refuses to resolve disputes fairly, the struggle depends on adjuncts’ resources to pay for legal fees.  You can help by contributing to the USF Adjunct Legal Fund.

Union members pay dues that help push back against unlawful management actions.  But in a union of part-timers, the legal fund to fight against management is far less than USF’s ability and willingness to spend student tuition dollars to crush campus unions and censor faculty.

Our union is the USF Part Time Faculty Association  (PTFA), AFT Local 6590. The union represents approximately 650 "part-time," "adjunct," or "contingent" faculty teachers at the university. 

(Note that current PTFA officers have not requested and are not responsible for this funding drive; such action would undoubtedly incur further retaliation from USF management (and their full-time faculty management “designees”), who prefer no public exposure of their censorship and union-busting activities.)

What you can do to help
I'm grateful, as are my adjunct colleagues, for any amount you’re able to contribute to the USF Adjunct Legal Fund.  Your help will mean we can continue to resist management's campaigns of censorship and intimidation against its most vulnerable teachers.

Social Justice, Conflict Transformation, and Jesuit/Ignatian Contemplation: they all begin at home, on the campus of our beloved University of San Francisco.  Where the motto "Change the World from Here" is more than just a marketing slogan, but is a genuine call for reflection and change that starts with ourselves.

in solidarity,
John Higgins
Adjunct Professor
Former President, USF-PTFA, AFT Local 6590