Feb. 03--Non-tenure track faculty members at USC's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences have rejected an effort to unionize, officials announced Tuesday.
After counting the votes at the National Labor Relations Board offices in West Los Angeles, the final tally was 113 in favor of joining the Service Employees International Union Local 721, and 127 against.
A simple majority was required to win.
Votes for non-tenure track faculty at the Roski School of Art and Design and the USC International Academy will be counted Tuesday night.
The SEIU has been working for nearly a year to organize a total of 430 faculty members at the three schools.
If a majority of eligible faculty members in a school votes to form a union, all of the eligible faculty members in that school will be required to join. If the union successfully negotiates a contract with USC administrators, union members will have to pay dues totaling 1.5% of their monthly paycheck.
The SEIU has previously held successful organizing campaigns at Whittier College and Tufts University.
USC faculty who voted for the union said they were frustrated with large workloads, low pay, shrinking benefits and poor career prospects.
Non-tenure-track faculty are generally responsible for leading discussion groups and teaching some classes, in addition to grading papers. Unlike their counterparts on the tenure track, they are not evaluated on the basis of their research.
Lecturers are paid about $30,000 annually if they teach a full-time load of six courses, according to union officials. USC says the pay is much higher.
And though USC has to build a case against a professor it wants to fire, non-tenure-track faculty members can be let go before the end of their contracts if they get a warning 90 days in advance.
In the current academic year, USC has 1,472 tenured and tenure-track faculty members and 4,265 non-tenure-track faculty across all its schools, according to the university.
USC Provost Michael Quick has said a union wouldn't necessarily lead to higher salaries but could create a more adversarial relationship with faculty.
"I understand the anger and frustration that some of our faculty members feel. Those feelings are legitimate," he said in a Jan. 8 email to faculty. "What I am asking is simply that, as your new provost, you give me a chance."
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