Panhandle Progressive Coalition

Panama City, Florida Pensacola, Florida

Tallahassee, Florida
Tel: (850) 418-0575
Email: PanhandleProgressiveCoalition@Gmail.com

Aaron Wazlavek
Executive Director
Lee Pryor
Director of Field Services

Steen Kirby
Director of Marking & Communications

Contact:
Steen Kirby
(470) 244-6207

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release April 30th, 2015

PANHANDLE PROGRESSIVE COALITION ENDORSES FACULTY FORWARD FLORIDA

[PENSACOLA, Fla.] Today, on the eve May Day, the Panhandle Progressive Coalition announces their full support for
Faculty Forward Florida organizing thousands of part-time professors coming together to make quality higher education
affordable and accessible for all students, and pushing for a standard national minimum total compensation for adjunct
faculty members.

Sharing similar goals and outcomes, the Panhandle Progressive Coalition believes that Floridas part-time professors of
higher education deserve fair pay, fair treatment, and good working conditions.

Academic employers need to prioritize instruction and fairly compensate all instructional professionals. Currently, the
average pay per course for adjunct faculty is approximately $3,000. A recent survey of contingent faculty by SEIU found
that:
16 percent are paid below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour;
24 percent are paid below $10/hour; and
43 percent are paid below $15/hour.
Almost all respondents say they are asked or expected to perform work outside the classroom and 28 percent
indicated that they spend more than 20 hours a week on work-related tasks outside of the classroom.
When asked if they have ever been asked or expected to perform work that they were not paid for by their
academic employers, 73 percent of survey respondents stated yes or maybe.

Aaron Wazlavek, Executive Director of the Panhandle Progressive Coalition, stated:
To think that college costs in Florida are not only rising, theyre virtually soaring; and, then pair that with the fact that
the growing base of part-time employees the State and private colleges and universities use to meet the demand of
higher enrollment, one would assume these part-time professors would be seeing a similar increase in pay and benefits.
However, that does not appear to be the case by and large for adjunct faculty throughout Florida.

In Florida, public higher education part-time professors are traditionally stymied from collective bargaining because of
Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC) regulations like rule 60CC-1.002, which defines the appropriateness of a
bargaining unit for public employees, and laws like Florida Statute 447.307, which prevents the certification of
bargaining units not deemed appropriate. Part time professors at private institutions deal with different sets of laws, but
similar hurdles exist. Even though the adjunct faculty are not necessarily organizing to form a bargaining unit, the
concept of organizing collective action absent a push for bargaining unit certification is a fresh approach to an issue that
has plagued higher education for decades. The Panhandle Progressive Coalition is proud to stand with our Sisters and
Brothers at Faculty Forward Florida demanding change.

ABOUT PANHANDLE PROGRESSIVE COALITION: The Panhandle Progressive Coalition is a partnership of various labor,
civic, social justice, student, environmental and animal rights advocacy organizations. Founded on 10 July 2014, the PPC
sought to coalesce our combined efforts to service and resolve issues in Pensacola, Panama City, and Tallahassee.

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