Rulings hit unions at private colleges

Two legal decisions issued back to back in different venues put a damper on efforts to win collective bargaining rights for faculty at private colleges, say labor advocates. The decisions don't entirely close the door on organizing, however.

In one decision, issued Feb. 12, University of Great Falls vs. National Labor Relations Board, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned several NLRB rulings on the issue of whether faculty at the private, non-profit university in Montana could bargain. The court found that, because the university is owned by a religious order, the Sisters of Providence, the freedom of religion clause within the First Amendment placed the institution outside the reach of the NLRB's jurisdiction. Therefore the court vacated the board's first determination that faculty had a right to bargain and its second finding that the university was committing an unfair labor practice in refusing to bargain.

In the second decision, issued Feb. 14, an NLRB regional director in Chicago, Elizabeth Kinney, relied on the Yeshiva precedent, finding that faculty at the University of St. Francis in Illinois exercised managerial responsibilities and were therefore prohibited from bargaining. The faculty were represented before the labor relations board by the University Professionals of Illinois/IFT/AFT. UPI field representative Jon Nadler said the union will appeal the decision.

The faculty's right to bargain at the University of Great Falls has been in contention since Oct. 16, 1995, when the Montana Federation of Teachers first petitioned the NLRB to recognize it as the collective bargaining agent for UGF faculty. The university maintained then, as it does now, that the NLRB did not have jurisdiction because of its affiliation with the Sisters of Providence. University attorneys cited a 1979 Supreme Court case, NLRB vs. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1994 as the sources of governing law in this case.

After carefully exploring the question of how religious UGF is, the board found the university to be primarily secular in its purpose and function. It came to this conclusion following the initial hearing in 1996, after the university appealed the board's decision to allow an election in 1997, and again after the university refused to bargain in 1998.

The circuit court found that the precedent set in the Catholic Bishop Supreme Court case would rule for Great Falls. Even the act of carefully exploring whether the university was "sufficiently religious" violated the First Amendment, the court said, quoting the Supreme Court decision: "It is not only the conclusions that may be reached by the Board which may impinge on rights guaranteed by the Religion Clauses, but also the very process of inquiry leading to findings and conclusions."

Relying on another precedent, the court set a three-question test to determine whether an institution would be exempt: whether an institution holds itself out publicly as a religious institution, whether it is a non-profit, and whether it has a religious affiliation.

The effect of the ruling is to make unions "think long and hard before attempting to organize faculty at non-profit religious institutions," says David Strom, AFT legal counsel. He adds that the decision has no effect on private, non-religious colleges and certainly not on public institutions.

At St. Francis, the union announced the day after the NLRB decision came out that it would appeal. Inadequate governance has always been the primary issue for USF faculty, says UPI's Nadler. "The administration claims that faculty have a governance structure and they need to work within the system. In reality, there is an elaborate setup with a faculty assembly, different committees and different procedures. But when all is said and done," Nadler notes, "if the president doesn't want it," the president's vote carries the day.

AFT's Strom says Kinney's decision in St. Francis is entirely fact-specific and doesn't have general implications for private college organizing. The board looks at the questions of faculty responsibility on a case-by-case basis. "Even with a negative Yeshiva ruling, unions still have alternative ways of putting pressure on a university to bargain with the union. It is the union's job to convince the institution that it is in the university's best interest to recognize the union."

Illinois tells faculty: Don't worry, you're happy

The academic community in Illinois is incredulous over the results of an official study on the status of non-tenure-track faculty in the state. Issued by the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) at the direction of the Illinois General Assembly, the study concludes that temporary and part-time faculty are as satisfied, if not more, with their jobs as full-time faculty are and also believe that they are fairly compensated.

The report is called "All Faculty Matter! A Study of Non-tenure-track Faculty at Illinois Public Colleges and Universities." The study consisted of public hearings, a collection of data from public institutions, and phone and mail surveys of administrators and faculty. The Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University conducted the study and provided the analysis.

The title stems from the report's primary recommendation--that institutions need to make faculty feel "they have a more secure and productive place within the institution and that their instructional abilities are fully developed to contribute to student learning."

Of lower priority to temporary and part-time faculty, apparently, are their salaries. Those salaries are a median $15,200 for full-time non-tenure-track and $4,000 for part-time faculty at public universities. Or, when calculated on an FTE basis, tenure/tenure-track faculty make twice the salary of full-time non-tenure-track faculty, 2.5 times the salary of part-time faculty and 3.5 times the salary of part-timers at the community colleges. Despite these disparities, the study says that most of the temporary faculty report they are "treated fairly" in compensation. "Their pay is based on market rates and serves as an income supplement for most non-tenure-track faculty," the study's authors helpfully explain.

"I was so flabbergasted by the results that I found it hard to respond to," says Sandy Flood, a temporary instructor at Northern Illinois University who has taught there for more than 20 years. She is president of the University Professionals of Illinois/AFT chapter of instructors at NIU, and worked tirelessly for passage of House Joint Resolution 19, which is the legislation that mandated the study.

Shortly after the IBHE released the report, it met for a regularly scheduled meeting and got a chance to hear reactions. UPI president Mitch Vogel expressed his disappointment with a job left undone. "The report contains no hard data nor any specific recommendations on issues," he said.

Flood has some insights into the problems from two perspectives. In addition to having lobbied for more than a year to have Illinois study the issues of contingent workers in higher education, she was also included in the random sample of the survey. Flood notes that no one from the IBHE asked for input from UPI when the board was drafting the survey. When two staffers from the Illinois Federation of Teachers went to an open early-planning meeting, their written suggestions were ignored.

The questionnaire was convoluted, she says, and so were the conclusions analysts drew from the answers. For example, one question asked: "Which of the following best describes the percentage of your family or household income that was accounted for by your pay for teaching at this institution?" It doesn't ask how much you are paid, she says. This could lead to the conclusion that you work to supplement the family income.

Some people Flood spoke to found another question so offensively irrelevant, they refused to answer it: "Do you have a spouse or other domestic partner?" On another issue, the data analysts defined freeway flyers as part-timers who worked at three or more institutions. Thus, they eliminated those working at two institutions (the most common practice) and deduced that only 5 percent of part-timers were working at multiple institutions. The IBHE report said there was no problem with freeway flyers in Illinois.

UPI is working on a critique to rebut "All Faculty Matter" before the IBHE makes its final decision on whether to accept the report at its next meeting this month.

College classes for prison inmates get reprieve

When Illinois Gov. George Ryan said in November that come Feb. 1, he would end a $14.5 million prison education program, he probably thought that would be one of the easier cuts he'd have to make. After all, prisoners don't vote.

The state of Illinois is facing a possible $700 million deficit due to falling tax revenues. But the uproar that ensued after Ryan made his announcement made it clear that cutting higher education for inmates would be too costly.

For one thing, prison education program supporters cite surveys showing that the recidivism rate drops from 39 percent to 4 percent for educated inmates. Some estimate this saves the state more than $16 million in long-term prison housing costs.

For another thing, the governor's cut would have put 575 faculty out on the street, according to the Illinois Correctional Education Contractors Organization. Most of the 275 full-time and 300 part-time faculty are employed by community colleges.

Lake Land College is one of the biggest providers of faculty to teach such subjects as auto mechanics, electronics and building trade skills. The college, which runs seven off-site correctional centers in minimum and maximum security prisons, stood to lose about 140 workers, its president estimated.

When word of the cuts came, the Lake Land College Faculty Association/AFT and the Illinois Federation of Teachers hit the ground running to save the program and faculty jobs. The LLCFA worked with the college administration to hold a rally, mount a massive letter writing campaign to the governor and legislators, make visits to the state capital and begin preparing a lawsuit, says Judy Vaughn, president of the union.

By Jan. 14, the battle was over. The governor said the program would stand.