Topline:
The regional office of the National Labor Review Board, an agency that enforces employee rights to organize, will allow USC’s proposed non-tenure-track faculty bargaining unit to vote on unionization. The decision follows a legal challenge from USC, which tried to block the effort.
Why it matters: The proposed bargaining unit is made up of roughly 2,700 people. In a statement, faculty said they are “coming together to form a union because, despite their contributions, they have experienced stagnant salaries, increasing workloads, vanishing benefits, threats to job security, and a lack of transparency in administrative policies.”
What faculty say: The faculty filed their petition for union representation in December 2024. “This is a huge win for us,” said Sanjay Madhav, an associate professor in the school of engineering. Noting that the university recently “laid off 1,000 of our colleagues,” he added: “[F]aculty want a real seat at the table, and we need one now more than ever. We’re excited to move ahead with this vote and[,] in the meantime, it’s crucial that USC refrains from any further legal delays.”
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What USC says: In a message to the university, Andrew Guzman, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, and Steven Shapiro, senior vice president for health affairs, said the election “will present a number of practical and legal issues,” including whether the “very different constituencies” proposed to be represented by the unit “can be effectively represented that way.”
What’s next: The election is set for the week of April 13 or April 20.
Go deeper: What’s at stake as USC and LMU push back against untenured faculty unions?