More than one third of Pitzer's tenured and tenure track professors have indicated a desire to unionize with Local 620 of the Industrial Workers of the World(IWW).

At press time, 19 of Pitzer's 54 Professors had committed to the union in writing, with organizers convinced that a majority of Pitzer professors would soon support the effort to unionize.

If a majority of faculty support the effort to unionize the union will go to Pitzer President Marilyn Chapin Massey and the board of trustees for recognition as a bargaining unit.

"For a long time we have needed a union," Professor of Political Studies and union organizer Dana Ward told the Los Angeles Times. "We have no effective input into our working conditions. There are a lot of prerogatives that have been consistently chipped away."

When asked by TSL about the impetus behind the effort to organize, Ward stated, "I would say the most important incentive was to respond to the administration's treatment of dining hall workers."

Since the time in which the Los Angeles Times first reported the efforts of the professors, the union that said professors have decided upon has drawn as much attention as their effort to unionize.

Ward explainied what some called an unusual choice of unions for a group of college professors:

"Symbolically, with the attitude the administration has taken toward unions on this campus, we thought it was appropriate to associate with one of the most oppressed unions historically," hesaid.

The California Faculty Association, the largest faculty union in the country, attempted to organize Pitzer faculty six years ago, but the effort failed due to lack of interest.

Unlike the California Faculty Association, the IWW is viewed as a relatively radical union.

The preamble to its constitution states: "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth."

Their website further states, "Instead of the conservative motto, 'A fair day's wage for a fair day's work,' we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, 'Abolition of the wage system.'"

The professors have yet to formally notify the administration of their intent to unionize, and do not plan to do so until they have the requisite majority needed to be officially recognized. Calls to the Pitzer administration for comment were not returned.