Mpls. College of Art and Design faculty voting on unionization

Updated Oct. 6, 1:15 p.m. | Posted Oct. 5, 8:25 p.m.

Faculty members at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design are voting on unionization.

Ballots are being sent out for a vote on whether to join the same Service Employees International Union Local 284 that also represents Hamline University adjunct faculty and is also attempting to represent University of Minnesota faculty.

The ballots will be counted on Oct. 19.

The election will include two bargaining units — one of part-time faculty and one of full-time faculty. According to SEIU, MCAD has about 80 part-time faculty and 20 full-time faculty.

Full-time professor Frenchy Lunning, who has taught at MCAD for 36 years, said she'd like benefits and health care for part-time faculty.

"The union is seen as something that can help us organize and we care about the adjuncts, that's why I would say, the vast majority of full-timers started becoming interested in getting a union because we felt the adjuncts — our fellow workers — needed some kind of protection," she said.

Lunning would also like to see clearer paths to full-time positions for part-time faculty.

She says the full-time faculty would also like to have more say in how the school operates.

"For me, this is about the future of higher education," said Dawn Pankonien, a political economist and adjunct professor, in a statement. "It is about ensuring pay rates and job security that will allow not only secondary but also primary household earners to assume positions as educators without needing to arrive at their morning lectures after working night shifts in other industries."

In a statement, the college said while it opposed the introduction of a union, "we support the right of each faculty member to decide whether union representation is right for them and have worked with the (National Labor Relations Board) to ensure a fair and timely election."