I am currently Co-Chair of our union and have served on the Collective Bargaining Committee twice, negotiating labor contracts protecting the non-tenure track faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences. We are now (summer 2025) in the middle of negotiating our third contract. Past negotiations with Loyola's administration have often been long and difficult, but ultimately fruitful. We won increased pay and job security for our members, as well as a ground-breaking pathway to full-time positions for our part-time members. For this contract, we have ambitious goals that will build on the gains of our first two contracts, as laid out in our vision statement.
I also attend meetings of Labor-Management Committee, where leaders of Faculty Forward and the administration deal with both routine union matters, such as converting part-time or temporary positions to full-time ones, and crises, such as teaching conditions are the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. As a result of our input, faculty needs and concerns have shaped official policy. Administration members have expressed gratitude to us during these meetings for the valuable insights we give them about the working conditions and concerns of faculty, admitting they would otherwise not know these things.
Finally, I am the Shop Steward for the Sociology Deoartment. In this role, I address faculty grievances with the administration and department chairs by gathering information and advocating on behalf of union members.
I volunteer with Students for International Labor Solidarity (SILS) as a subject matter expert and workshop facilitator. I worked with one of SILS’ national organizers to start a chapter of SILS at Loyola University Chicago. I have helped organize and facilitate both campus and Chicago-wide workshops on sweatshops, the global economy, and campus activism, helping college students understand how to strategically leverage their power on campus to help sweatshop workers in the Global South. I then brainstormed with students to develop strategic action plans for their campuses.