Unions for Online Education

The Washington Post reports on a new campaign by the Service Employees International Union, the 2nd largest and fastest growing union in the United States, to greatly raise the wages of university teaching adjuncts:

Now, a union that’s been rapidly organizing adjuncts around the country thinks that number [wages, AT] should quintuple. Last night, on a conference call with organizers across the country, the SEIU decided to extend the franchise with a similar aspirational benchmark: A “new minimum compensation standard” of $15,000. Per course. Including benefits.

…At the moment, the $15,000 number sounds even more outlandish than $15 did when fast food workers started asking for twice the federal minimum wage. But organizers argue that if you’re teaching a full load of three courses per semester, that comes out to $90,000 in total compensation per year — just the kind of upper-middle-class salary they think people with advanced degrees should be able to expect. (Most adjuncts teach part-time, which would put them at $50,000 or $75,000 per year.)