AFA-UAW Bargaining Team Election:
Online Voting FAQ

The next steps are to nominate and elect a bargaining committee. The elected committee will survey members on what is important to fight for and secure in our first contract. They will put together an initial list of our demands, which they will present to all members, who will vote on whether to ratify it. Then the committee will begin to bargain with representatives of USC.

To determine the members of the bargaining team, AFA-UAW will hold an election from Saturday March 9th at 3:00 pm PST until Tuesday March 12th at 6:00 PM PST. The 7 candidates who receive the greatest number of votes will be elected to the bargaining team.

SCA Adjuncts will be negotiating with USC, but members of SCA Administration may be present.

The contract will be negotiated by a 7-person bargaining committee of fellow adjuncts elected by all AFA members. They will work closely with negotiators and lawyers from UAW who will advise them during the process.

Members may nominate themselves, or be nominated by their fellow adjuncts (with their approval.) They will supply statements and answer questions during a town-hall. Then a vote will be held, and the top 7 will win.

An invitation to a secret and secure ballot will be sent to all SCA Adjuncts from a secure online voting platform, Simply Voting (vote@simplyvoting.com), at 3:00 PM PST on Saturday March 9th. The email will contain a link to the voting website and a log-in specific to your email. Do not forward email to anyone else.

If you cannot find your ballot, you may request one.

A list of candidates along with their candidate statements can be found here.

After the close of the election, vote tallies will be distributed to SCA Adjuncts by approximately 10AM, Wednesday March 13th.

All SCA Adjuncts at USC are eligible to vote.

SCA Adjuncts will receive a ballot at ONE of the email addresses subscribed to receive AFA-UAW emails. If you have unsubscribed from AFA-UAW emails, you must opt back in to our communications to receive a ballot. This cannot be done automatically due to service agreements and federal and state anti-spam laws.

Fill out this Google Form. The AFA Elections Team will verify your identity and ensure that you are added to the list of ballot recipients. You may fill this form out before or during the election (if during the election, do so before 5PM PST on the final day of the election.)

The deadline to request a ballot for the election is March 12th, 2024 at 5:00 PM, Pacific Time.

There is no set timeline for this process. At any point in this process, the sides could reach an agreement. It could be soon. It could take several months. For reference, the studios and the WGA reached an agreement in 188 days, and it took eight months for GSWOC, the USC Graduate Student Union.

Yes! AFA-UAW will be sending out a bargaining survey form. This form will allow you to have your voice heard on your top issues as well as suggest other issues that you think need to be discussed. This may also include (TBD by the bargaining committee) Town Halls, one on one conversations, and focus groups among the different divisions on their needs. The negotiating team will compile all of the responses and come up with a list of demands / proposals. These will be ratified by all adjuncts before bargaining begins.

The AFA-UAW Bargaining Team negotiates a Tentative Agreement for a new faculty contract, then presents the agreement to members for a ratification vote. A contract can only be approved by majority vote!

Email elections@adjunctfacultyalliance.org

Email elections@adjunctfacultyalliance.org to ask a question. Use this form to request a ballot up until March 12th, 2024 at 5:00 PM (Pacific Time). The Elections Support Team is not permitted to provide any advice on who to vote for and will only assist in the logistics of ensuring AFA Adjuncts access to vote.

Issues with ballots will be resolved in the following order: 1.Voters who write in with an issue receiving their ballot or fill out the ballot request form. 2.Voters to whom the voting platform indicates ballots were not delivered due to incorrect, missing or bounced email addresses. The Elections Support team will make every effort to resolve all known ballot issues.

Simply Voting is a web-based online voting system that will allow AFA-UAW to run an accessible and secure election.

You can view Simply Voting’s security and reliability measures here.

Yes. The administrative side of the election interface shows who is voting but does not reveal how individuals vote.