They ignore the ways this new system has already undermined faculty governance and academic freedom. By enlisting the higher status, privileged strata in maintaining social control over the work force as a whole, this new system makes it harder for tenure-stream faculty to organize. Take one example. The infamous Yeshiva ruling by the Supreme Court in the early 1980s sided with the NLRB in characterizing faculty in private universities as managers, not workers. This ruling has barred collective bargaining in private schools and hence hamstrung organizing of faculty ever since.
Departments conduct searches in total disregard of institutional disadvantages suffered by adjuncts.
This leapfrogging perpetuates the permanent underclass, which is then dissed for failing to publish. Yet those outsider the tenure stream are barred from almost all in-house grant money available for research. It also suggests why adjuncts must rely on themselves to fight for their interests, rather than the good will of tenure-stream faculty. Adjuncts are keenly aware of our vulnerabilities. We are less clear about how much untapped power we possess.