On April 4, Gov. Gary Locke signed into law a collective bargaining bill that should launch a new era of higher education organizing in Washington state. The bill, sponsored by a coalition led by the Washington Federation of Teachers, brings in the last group of faculty who had been left out in the non-bargaining cold. They are those 8,000 or so who teach in the state's public four-year and research institutions and are defined as "faculty" by their institution's faculty code or other internal documents.

The bill's progress as it wended its way through the legislative process had moments that mimicked a Grade-B adventure flick. No sooner had the bill triumphed over one calamity than it turned the corner to meet the next. The climax came after the carefully crafted bill passed through the House. In the Senate, which, earlier in the week had passed a collective bargaining bill for teaching assistants at the University of Washington, S.B. 6440 met its poison--a last-minute amendment that would force faculty to choose between having collective bargaining or shared governance--but not both.

This amended bill passed, thus putting its champions in the possible position of having to ask the governor to veto it.

Undaunted, the bill's advocates consulted with legal experts, called out the masses of supporters among the WFT and Washington Education Association groups, the labor unions and the faculty senates, and figured out a way for the governor to strike the offensive language from the bill and sign it.

Making the law a reality required acts of both faith and courage, says Sandra Schroeder, WFT president. "I think no one thought this bill would make it. It had been failing for the past 40 years." What started the ball rolling was the last election, which gave the edge to Democrats in both houses of the state Legislature, joining the Democrat in the governor's mansion.

This lead to what Schroeder calls "the first historical moment," when the bill was "dropped" in January. Behind it was a coalition of the six university administrations, the six faculty senates and the two unions--the WFT and the WEA. In past years, the unions had had to file bills that lacked the involvement and support of the University of Washington.
This year, WFT legislative director Wendy Rader-Konofalski got wind that the UW faculty senate was working on its own bill, having had its interest piqued by the teaching assistants' union organizing campaign. She brought the WFT to work together with the faculty senate. The final bill had to reflect the interests of the faculty at Eastern Washington University, where the union has voluntary recognition; at Central Washington University, where the unit could include counselors, librarians and part-timers; and of the faculty bodies at the other institutions.

The coalition succeeded. "This bill has all the bells and whistles it needs to be a perfectly functioning bargaining bill," says Rader-Konofalski. She also credits the contributions of the Washington State Labor Council, which made the two higher ed bargaining bills top legislative priorities.

"One thing we learned is how much people who don't have collective bargaining don't understand about it," says Schroeder. "It took a lot of educating to allow those who would benefit from the bill to become its advocates."

The next step? "We'll be organizing in the fall," Schroeder says. [Barbara McKenna]