When Shannon Willson showed up at the first meeting of the committee charged with hiring a vice president of administrative services for Long Beach Community College, the last thing she expected was to be led away in handcuffs. As president of the Long Beach Council of Classified Employees/AFT, her right to sit on the committee is set forth in California law and college district administrative policies.

Yet, the LBCC administration doesn't see it that way. And so at 9 a.m., on Nov. 20, administrators had this secretary to the dean of the School of Nursing and Allied Health begin her workday by being physically removed from the building.

The right of all the groups on a campus to participate in shared governance is guaranteed under Title 5 of a California education reform law known as A.B. 1725. Until the year 2000, Long Beach would allow classified staff to sit on some committees. This was also a requirement of the classified union's contract.

In March 2000, however, the union representing classifieds (California School Employees Association) was decertified, and the AFT was elected bargaining agent. Since then, the administration has refused to recognize or deal with the union even though the contract was still operative. Administrators locked the doors of the union office, kicked classified staff off committees, took away release time from the union officers, and "decided we had lost all of our organizational rights," Willson says. The administration claims that because "CSEA" is still listed on the documents as staff representative, it does not have to recognize AFT. At the same time, it has avoided reaching a new collective bargaining contract.

The union has filed unfair labor practices and awaits the final rulings.

LBCCE represents 400 technical, clerical, custodial and ground operations staff who are in their fourth year without a contract. After the prior bargaining representative negotiated unsuccessfully for two years, the administration threw out the resolved issues when the AFT was elected, and management has engaged in regressive bargaining ever since.

Willson decided to push the point of shared governance for several reasons. First, the administrative slot being filled had direct supervision of classified employees as its charge. Second, the administration's treatment of classified staff has been increasingly "punitive and demoralizing," she says. "I cannot tolerate the way they've treated the classifieds--disenfranchising one of the largest groups on campus." Her standing up to the administration has given a huge boost to classifieds' morale. "It was as if we were all arrested," she says.

Marty Hittelman, president of the California Federation of Teachers Community College Council, has called on Long Beach Community College to make a public apology to Willson. "The administration's heavy-handed action in handcuffing its own staff shows that the administration has thrown any semblance of collegiality out the window," he says.

LBCCE has filed unfair labor practice charges against the district administration for violating state law.

AFT-Oregon filed a civil lawsuit last fall against Oregon Taxpayers United (OTU), an organization that has been behind numerous right-wing initiatives placed on the state ballot in recent years. The initiatives have dealt with paycheck "protection" to reduce unions' political fundraising, tax cuts and a measure to reduce government services.

The union found evidence that people working for OTU and an education foundation and PAC associated with the group were forging signatures they were collecting in order to get initiatives on the ballot. They also had people who were not eligible to vote signing the petitions.

At a news conference, AFT-Oregon executive director Richard Schwarz described the union's charges against OTU agents, alleging that they violated the Oregon Racketeer Influence and Corruptions Act (RICO) by fraudulently gathering signatures for sponsorship of petitions for ballot measures 59, 91, 92 and 98. "Our membership is made up of Oregon citizens--voters and taxpayers--" who have been harmed by OTU's activities, he said.

"The fraudulent use of the ballot measure process has forced AFT to expend resources opposing such initiatives," says Debbi Covert, AFT Oregon president, "rather than initiating and implementing programs for the improvement of public education, healthcare and working conditions for Oregonians."

This year, Oregon unions have banded together to create the Voter Education Project, which is trying to educate the public about the legal process associated with getting initiatives on the ballot. "We want it to be a fair fight," says Patty Wentz, a spokesperson for the VEP. "We want to make sure they get on the ballot honorably, without cheating, without fraud."

The Graduate Employees Organization/AFT at the University of Illinois brought the university's central quad to a halt on Nov. 28 and 29 with a work stoppage that closed five key buildings. Showing the spirit, determination and endurance that makes them such good teachers and researchers, the graduate employees weathered freezing rain and prairie chill to walk picket lines, hold daily rallies and even keep some administrators cowering in their offices.

All in all, 350 teaching assistants in the targeted buildings cancelled classes, says GEO communications officer David Kamper. Many of the faculty supported the union by not crossing the picket lines and canceling classes or moving them elsewhere. The union estimates that 10,000 students were affected.

"None of us are happy about canceling classes, but it's our only weapon," says Kamper. In fact, undergraduates did not seem too inconvenienced and were more curious about and supportive of GEO's actions than ever before, he reports.

The union has faced a series of legal and other hurdles in trying to gain recognition. After finally getting a ruling last year from the Illinois Supreme Court that the employees had the right to bargain, the union was blindsided by a state education labor board decision to exclude up to 95 percent of the unit of 5,200 in its determination of who could vote in the bargaining election. Now the GEO is determined to persuade the university to voluntarily recognize the union.

The GEO has held teach-ins, work-ins and numerous rallies to raise public awareness of the graduate employees' issues. On Nov. 27, it got the Illinois House of Representatives to pass a resolution endorsing the GEO's fight for recognition and calling on the university to bargain. With each action, GEO strength--and membership--swells. With the union planning to take a strike vote later in the semester, it seems that the November work stoppage could prove to be a successful dress rehearsal for the main event to come.

Although the Graduate Teaching Assistants' Coalition had been trying to engage in productive contract talks with the University of Kansas since September 2000, it was not until the following spring that the administration sat down for regular talks. That was when the AFT-affiliated union began mounting rallies and grade-ins to show the university it meant business.

Around the same time, math department graduate employee Carol Tracy got a feel for how concerned the administration was about her ability to work and live at the university. "I have a health condition which requires $400 of medicine a month," she wrote in an e-mail to the chancellor. "The student health plan will only cover $1,000 per year. This leaves me with a large expense in my budget. The minimum pay at Iowa would allow me to balance my budget. Another solution is to provide the GTAs with the same health plan as the other staff."

The chancellor's response was heartwarming: "Carol," he asked, "is there any way you can receive Medicaid to help with your condition?" Kansas graduate employees receive pay and benefits that put them at the bottom of the ladder of peer institutions. Their first contract, which expired Sept. 30, 2000, addressed some of the problems, but the administration is proving to be unwilling to go any further in the current negotiations, says Robert Vodicka, GTAC chief negotiator.

The union is looking for $11,000, $12,000 and $13,000 minimum salaries in the three consecutive years of the contract. The university wants these numbers to be $7,000, $7,700, and $8,400 respectively. That, combined with health benefits that are determined by the state Health Care Commission--not at the bargaining table--makes the price of learning and working at the University of Kansas untenable for GTAs.

In November, the union held rallies to support the negotiating team and bargained hard on all points, conceding some on many issues including its salary demands. The university wouldn't budge and declared an impasse Dec. 3.

Despite state laws that don't favor unions in impasse proceedings (the management can impose its final offer), the GTAC membership voted to let negotiations end at impasse, says Vodicka. "Our members didn't want us to cave in on salary numbers. Also, we wanted to use this issue of the unreasonable behavior on the part of the administration to energize those who are our members and organize those who are not."

Graduate employees at other public universities around the state are keeping a close eye on GTAC's progress. After the last contract, the state automatically made salary increases and health benefits available to the other unorganized TAs. GTAC is hoping that fellow teaching employees on other campuses will see the merit of joining the union.