On Valentine’s eve, part-timers at Western Michigan University are showing their devotion to the rights and benefits a union can bring. The Professional Instructors Organization of WMU is filing a petition for an election and cards with the Michigan Employment Relations Commissions. This is just on the heels of a sister-union petition filing on behalf of grad employees at Central Michigan University (see earlier story). Both organizations are affiliated with AFT Michigan.

Part-time instructors teach hundreds of undergraduate and some graduate courses at WMU as well as internet-based and off-site instruction, according to the PIO. In some cases part-time instructors’ work hours exceed the university’s requirements for “full-time” employment, but instructors receive significantly lower salaries.

"Salary and job security are among the big issues for many part-time instructors," said Karl Schrock, an adjunct instructor in the School of Music. "As educators we are committed to our students and this university, yet we are often left to struggle with stagnant wages, few resources, and undue hardships created by the constant uncertainty of future appointments." Part-time instructors at WMU are employed on a semester-by-semester basis, although many of them have taught at the university for 10, 20, and even 30 years.

Labor love must be a theme in the state, because the PIO is joining the ranks of nontenure-track employee unions (all AFT affiliates) at the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and Wayne State University.