Just because your workload drops for one quarter—perhaps because of underenrollment beyond your control—doesn't mean you should lose your health benefits.

That's the message AFT Washington has been drumming home to its state legislators and, as of June 8, full health and dental benefits for part-time faculty at community and technical colleges are protected. Once a part-timer has two full academic years during which he or she averages a 50 percent or more workload, benefits are guaranteed every quarter unless the part-timer drops below that 50 percent for a full academic year. Thanks to AFT Washington lobbying and networking alongside the Washington Education Association, and its close contact with the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, state House and Senate bills protecting health benefits for part-timers passed this spring.

State representative Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, associate AFT member and enthusiastic sponsor of the House bill (HB 2583), says the measure ensures equity and consistency in the administration of health benefits. Part-time faculty, she adds, "provide the backbone for higher education" in Washington. "I'm such a firm believer in what they provide," she says. "If we didn't have them, it would really hurt our economic stability."

"This provides predictability and reliability for part-time faculty," adds state Sen. Craig Pridemore, who sponsored the Senate version. Its success, he says, can be attributed in part to "great lobbying by AFT Washington."

For AFT Washington member Dominique Coulet du Gard, the legislation is life-changing. "I was having to work a large number of hours just to pay my health insurance premiums," she says. "Since [the new policy] went into effect, I am finally able to survive in this economy."

"It makes a huge difference," agrees Carol Wilkinson, vice president of the local for adjunct and part-time faculty at Whatcom Community College. Her colleague, Ene Lewis, feels vindicated by the change. She dropped below half time one winter quarter but worked almost full time the other two quarters. Under the old system, she lost her health benefits for the winter quarter as well as summer. Lewis’s ceramics and drawing classes are so popular, they fill up on the first day of registration. That kind of success deserves recognition, or at least consistent health benefits. Lewis's new coverage does make sure they are in place.

"I extend my greatest appreciation to all those individuals in and outside of the union who worked hard for these laws in the state of Washington," says Coulet du Gard. "I sincerely hope that such egalitarian, humanitarian laws are similarly adopted in other states."

The new benefits enhance the situation for part-timers in Washington, who, like all state employees there, are guaranteed full health and dental benefits if they work more than half time. To clarify "half time" for faculty who put in hours of preparation and follow-up work for their classes, the AFT already had helped pass legislation standardizing the definition of “half time” in 1996. "Overnight, 600 more part-timers became eligible for medical benefits and 200 became eligible for retirement benefits," remembers Wendy Rader-Konofalski of AFT Washington. [Virginia Myers Kelly]

July 25, 2006