AFEC-AAUP has negotiated five (5) contracts on behalf of affiliated faculty at Emerson College.
Contract Update: New Contract, 2025 to 2029 Ratified by Members…
Negotiations were concluded in the Summer of 2024 and Memorandum of Understanding ratified by AFEC Membership in September 2024. Final contract will be posted shortly.
Contract highlights include:
- 5% across the board salary increase the first year for all affiliated faculty, standard cost of living increases thereafter
- Health Insurance subsidy increase to 70% for Level III and above, and 50% after 24 teaching hours
- Increased Transportation Benefit to $55/month
- The time frame for making a grievance has been increased from 10 to 30 days from when the occurrence took place.
Union Elections
Fall 2024 elections results are in and the AFEC Executive Team is:
Department AND Faculty Assembly (NEW!) Liaisons (Paid).
- Department Liaisons attend monthly department meetings and starting in the Spring 2025 semester Faculty Assembly with voting privileges.
Contact Barry Marshall if you are interested in learning more.
David Akiba: 1940-2019
AFEC-AAUP wishes to observe the passing of David Akiba, a good friend who died August 24, 2019. David was an Emerson faculty member in the Visual & Media Arts department for 25 years, from 1993-2018. He was the second president of AFEC-AAUP and helped negotiate our first union contract, a process that took a grueling 30 months from 2001 to 2004.
David was proud of his work codifying the rights and institutional respect for the large class of affiliated faculty members at a time when neither of these things were easy and both were overdue. His passion was photography and his work was extraordinary. It can be seen at https://davidakiba.weebly.com.
AAUP-AFEC extends its condolences to Jane Akiba, a long-time faculty member at Emerson, also in the Visual & Media Arts department, and to David’s entire family.
Transit reimbursement
Emerson launched a transit reimbursement program for adjuncts in Spring 2019. Affiliated faculty who were members of AFEC-AAUP and teaching at least one 3 or 4 credit class were eligible for reimbursement up to $42.25 per month for their public transit payments. Updates about the program for Fall 2019 will be sent by email from Emerson’s department of human resources or from Union president Barry Marshall.
By-Laws
Our Union by-laws are posted on the About page. These detail the basic procedural rules of the organization, including the roles of Union officers and the negotiation committee.
Grievance Procedure
The Union contract brings to the adjunct teachers of Emerson a formal process for grieving unfair practices. The Union’s hope is that this will be a last step solution for making sure people are treated fairly.
If you feel you are being treated unfairly, the first step the Union recommends is for you to try to resolve the matter by working with your department chair or other relevant school officers. You must try to rectify the situation yourself before you turn to the Union. Many issues can be solved more quickly and efficiently if the Union never gets involved.
If you have tried to solve the problem yourself and feel like you are still being treated unfairly, do these three things:
- Consult the Union contract. Is there a specific provision of the contract that the school is in violation of? The Union cannot bring a grievance on your behalf unless there is a contract violation.
- Make several sets of photocopies of all relevant information, such as contracts, Emails, letters, evaluations, etc. Write out a clear, detailed description of the history of the problem, the part of the contract you believe the College is in violation of, and what solution you are seeking.
- Contact Union President at barry_marshall@emerson.edu. Include your telephone number. Barry will take your request to the Union officers, and as a team they will make a decision about the validity of your claim and whether the Union will put its resources toward filing a grievance on your behalf.