Full-time faculty members at the public college in the Florida Keys plan to unionize, a move that follows a statewide trend.
More than 70 percent of the roughly 30 full-time professors at the College of the Florida Keys submitted cards to the Florida Public Employee Relations Commission on Thursday announcing their intention to form a union, according to organizers. The school recently changed its name from Florida Keys Community College.
Katheryn Eads, a full-time psychology professor at the college who started there as an adjunct in 2010, said the small faculty wants representation in Tallahassee to advocate for increased funding for public higher education.
She also said professors want higher salaries, arguing their pay doesn't match the high cost of living in the Keys. A spokeswoman for the college said the median salary for full-time faculty was about $66,000.
"It's just hard to live down here, and we've got to find a way to level the playing field," Eads said.
President Jonathan Gueverra said in a statement: "The college’s board and administration value our faculty and will not inhibit them as they exercise their right to unionize."
Next up, there will be an election. If a majority votes yes, the union would become the newest chapter of the United Faculty of Florida, which represents full-time faculty at all of the state's universities and half of the community colleges.
UFF has steadily grown its ranks in recent years, adding faculty chapters at colleges throughout the state.
UFF is under the umbrella of the statewide Florida Education Association and affiliated with the the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association.
As part of a separate effort, adjunct professors have increasingly moved to form unions as well, including recently at Miami Dade and Broward colleges.
