Howard Community College adjunct professors voted Wednesday to unionize, taking advantage of a 2021 state law allowing community college professors and staff to bargain collectively.

The state Public Employee Relationships Board certified the 135-9 vote on Aug. 8. Part-time faculty will be represented by the Service Employees International Union.

The number of adjunct professors at Howard Community College changes depending on the semester and course load. About 400 ballots were sent to staff.

“I am delighted the vote was so decisive,” Vaughn Winchell, a senior adjunct professor in mathematics, said Monday. “I think this is going to be very, very good for adjunct faculty at HCC.”

Members want to improve working conditions, such as increasing the tiered pay scale based on course credits. Howard adjunct professors, the lowest tier, make $1,046 per credit, compared with, for example, Montgomery College, a community college in Rockville, where the lowest-tier professors make $1,460 per credit, Winchell said.

Members also want to represent adjuncts during structural changes to Howard Community College, such as a recent consolidation of academic departments. Adjunct professors can be bumped out of teaching certain courses if a full-time professor needs to take on more credits to fill their workload, said Guy Bunyard, a full-time mathematics professor.

Adjunct faculty at Anne Arundel Community College were the first part-time community college workers to unionize in Maryland, said Sara Katz, a union organizer. The school is in the process of bargaining their first contract.

Last year, full-time professors at Howard Community College unionized and started bargaining in January. Nearly 130 full-time faculty are represented by the American Federation of Teachers.

“There are a lot of different jobs that faculty do besides just teaching in the classroom,” Bunyard said. “A lot of times, when you’re asked to do something, there’s no change in your job description. There’s no change in your pay. … It could be different from your different departments to different divisions, depending on what your dean thinks, depending on what your department chair thinks. And so we’re hoping for some consistency.”

The school’s board of trustees and President Daria Willis support its faculty members contributions and recognize their expertise in delivering quality education to students, Jarrett Carter Sr., a spokesperson for the college, said in a statement.

“As HCC and SEIU seek opportunities for collaboration, we embrace a shared goal of cultivating excellence in teaching, learning, and training,” Carter said. “We look forward to dialogue that centers student achievement for our campus community and Howard County.”

In August 2023, workers at Howard and Frederick community colleges were the first faculties to take advantage of the law that gave community college workers new collective bargaining rights.

Over 80% of the 170 faculty at Howard Community College and 100 faculty in Frederick petitioned the employee relations board to unionize, the American Federation of Teachers said at the time.

Howard’s bargaining process has been slow, Bunyard said, frustrating some members.

“There’s been a lot of turnover in the [administration], and when you have turnover like that, it can kind of slow things down a little bit,” he said. “So maybe that’ll firm up, and we’ll get rolling here a little bit faster.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Dillon Mullan contributed to this article.