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. First of all, we have the power to embarrass the academic power structure morally and politically. We give the lie to all the talk about commitment to teaching and to education in general. The more the plight of adjuncts is exposed to the public at large, the harder is it for administrators of higher education or tenure-stream faculty to remain morally credible in the public arena. The consumer issues are equally outrageous.