Organizing the Academic Precariat in the United States

Faculty labour in the United States is increasingly "contingent", as tenure-track and tenured positions are rapidly being replaced by "adjuncts", "lecturers", "instructors" and other faculty who lack traditional protections of academic freedom and job security. In light of this, contingent faculty have been actively organising themselves into unions on many campuses. Unionisation efforts for nontenure-track faculty have often been highly successful, yet significant hurdles remain.