Part-Time Faculty at Chicago’s School of the Art Institute Want a Union
At Chicago’s School of the Art Institute, adjunct faculty struggle to make ends meet while trying to balance their artistic practices. We spoke with three SAIC organizers about their campaign to organize a union for part-time faculty.
A SAIC faculty AICWU kickoff celebration on the steps of the museum on May 10, 2022. (Courtesy Anders Lindall)
In the past few years, museum and media workers across the country have conducted numerous successful unionization campaigns. This bright spot, along with exciting victories at Amazon, Starbucks, and Apple, may represent the initial stirrings of a revitalized labor movement.
A 2017 unionization attempt by non-tenure-track faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) led to the school offering multiyear teaching contracts, a significant victory that gave part-time faculty the ability to schedule classes more reliably. Then, like at so many workplaces, the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for the school to backtrack on these gains. But the faculty were prepared to fight back.
In 2021, staff at both the Art Institute of Chicago and SAIC organized amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In early 2022, before the dust had settled, the part-time faculty began their own organizing effort.
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