Montgomery County, MD – Adjunct professors at Montgomery College filed for a union election today with Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, Division of Labor and Industry. In what will be a crucial step toward securing a collective bargaining agreement with the college, the professors hope to hold their election before the end of the spring semester. They have chosen the Service Employees International Union Local 500 as their representative.

On all three of the college’s main campuses, part-time professors expressed jubilation and urgency.

“We’re thrilled to be taking this historic and momentous step,” said Victoria Baldassano, a member of the campaign’s organizing committee. “The adjunct faculty here is dedicated and hard-working, and we are finally on the path to pay equity and a decent standard of living.”

In what has become a standard practice among colleges and universities, the majority of Montgomery College’s professors are part-time. Adjuncts are offered no medical benefits and often have enormous per-course pay disparity between themselves and their full-time counterparts. No matter how long an adjunct professor teaches at the college, they are not guaranteed a contract renewal. Perhaps not surprisingly, they are among the last Montgomery County employees to organize a union.

“These teachers are an essential part of the county’s commitment to excellence in higher education and therefore deserve to have a voice at the college, as well as at the County Council,” said Merle Cuttitta, the president of SEIU Local 500. “Just as we have with Montgomery County Public Schools, we hope to build a collaborative relationship with Montgomery College in strengthening the educational priorities of the county council.”

Local 500 also represents over twelve hundred adjunct professors at George Washington University in the District of Columbia, the only area college with an organized adjunct faculty.

“So many of my talented colleagues love to teach, but don’t know how much longer they can afford to work here,” said Baldassano. “We look forward to sitting down with the County Council and working toward a solution that attracts and retains great professors for Montgomery County.”