Nontenure-track faculty at the University of San Diego have voted overwhelmingly to join SEIU Local 721, following national unionization trends in academia.
The tentative agreement marks the first deal for the workers represented by SEIU Local 721 since they voted to unionize in March 2023.
The coalition — including more than 80 organizations such as the L.A. County Federation of Labor, California Community Foundation, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, SEIU 721, among others — worked together to draft, qualify, and aim to pass a “bold and new” approach to housing affordability and homelessness, organizers said.
If certified, the student-led union would be affiliated with Service Employees International Union Local 721. (SEIU Local 721 already represents non-tenure-track professors and clerical staff on campus.)
The spirited action at the end of March followed months of quiet behind-the-scenes union organizing by student workers that included collecting hundreds of their signatures on union cards.
David Green, SEIU 721’s president and executive director, offered praise for the package of raises this month, saying it will help the city bring on new employees.
Steve Koffroth, chair of the Coalition of City Unions and interim director of research and marketing at SEIU Local 721, called the agreements a “good deal for all parties.”
According to staff, organizers filed for a union election to join SEIU Local 721 with the National Labor Relations Board on Friday.
Soroya Rowley, a theatre department lecturer, is co-lead of a 13-member organizing committee — working for a collective bargaining unit under Service Employees International Union Local 721.
Representatives from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 721 collaborated with ROSE to run the event and news outlets including Telemundo/NBC4 were in attendance.