PrintUConn postdocs vote for union
Postdoctoral fellows at the University of Connecticut Health Center made history on Aug. 28 by voting for representation by the University Health Professionals (UHP), an 1,800-member AFT Connecticut affiliate.The 138-member unit—among only a handful of postdocs in the country to unionize—took the first step toward better salaries, more respect and greater control over the direction of their professional training.
The victory validates organizers’ efforts and demonstrates that legal trickery cannot block the will of the unit members, says AFT Connecticut.
The university will now have to go through the union in dealing with the postdocs, said UHP president Jean Morningstar, adding that she is looking forward to including the fellows in the union contract.
Calling the vote a “tremendous victory,” AFT Connecticut president Sharon Palmer praised the perseverance and resolve of the unit, noting, “The postdocs have endured much hardship because of their commitment to science. Today they have taken action to gain a voice in the workplace and still maintain their commitment to their work.”
The victory culminates a two-year fight for representation. Facing long hours, low wages and a lack of vacation and sick days, postdoc organizers gathered enough support to file cards in December 2002—at which point the university raised a series of legal hurdles to the election.
“This election was always about respect and equity,” said postdoctoral fellow John Wagner. With the election victory in hand, the fellows are especially eager to address their training in more detail in the contract.
The postdocs typically enter fellowships to gain specialized training that is important in the scientific market, says Wagner, so it is crucial that the right training be offered.
“I believe this will make the UConn Health Center a much more attractive work site to postdocs,” said Ulrike Klueh, a postdoctoral fellow.
In 1996, postdocs at the University of Alaska voted to join AFT as part of a larger group of university personnel.
More Illinois adjuncts join the fold
Adjunct faculty at Southwestern Illinois College cast their votes on Sept. 22 in favor of union representation by the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) and the AFT. The vote was 70 to 4 in a unit of 290. The union, called the Part-Time College Professionals of Southwestern Illinois College (PTCP), joins three other IFT-affiliated units on campus representing full-time faculty, full- and part-time support staff and part-time noninstructional professionals and public safety workers. The IFT now represents more than 800 employees on that campus.Interest in organizing the adjuncts had grown in recent years due to changes in the state education bargaining law loosening restrictions on who among part-time workers is eligible to bargain. Also, part-timers noted that wages, benefits and conditions continued to decline for unrepresented employees, while represented employees got steady and significant improvements.
At the same time, the college has grown increasingly dependent on using part-time faculty, who outnumber full-time faculty by more than six to one when those teaching just one course are included in the total faculty head count.
The unions on campus well understood the part-time faculty’s concerns, says Bob Maguire, president of PTCP: “No offices, no phones. At times we’re treated like stepchildren and that’s not right.” Given the support of campus groups, he adds, “the administration seemed to realize that maybe our concerns are legitimate.”
As is the case with adjuncts nationwide, pay was a galvanizing issue. “Across the river, Missouri adjuncts make many times an hour what we get,” says Maguire.
The need for health benefits was another driving force. With adjuncts carrying six to nine hours of teaching per semester, most are not able to find other jobs that would provide health insurance. Seniority and pay for preparation are other concerns.
But the primary issue for his colleagues, says Maguire, is professional. With a union, “we’d enjoy status, consideration and respect within this educational community,” he explains. “We are a unit of highly educated, intelligent people. We want to use our knowledge to make this a better institution.”
Florida State faculty say yes to union
The Faculty at Florida State University (FSU) voted 736 to 33 to certify the United Faculty of Florida/AFT/NEA (UFF) as the bargaining agent to represent professors and professional employees in contract negotiations with the university board of trustees.The unit of 1,532 produced a 96 percent vote for the union against a 4 percent vote for no agent. The Public Employees Relations Commission, which held the vote, announced the results on Oct. 8.
The FSU vote brings to 10 the number of institutions in the 11-campus public system affirming the faculty’s desire to be represented by UFF. The union has been representing the employees for years, but when Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature reorganized the higher education system last year, the union’s status changed. On all 11 campuses, more than two-thirds of the faculty signed cards authorizing the UFF to continue representing them as bargaining agent. On six campuses, the boards accepted this overwhelming response and extended voluntary recognition to the union. The union has won in elections at four. The only remaining unit election to be held is at the University of Florida.
Along with recertifying UFF, the faculty face many other challenges having to do with the state’s political environment, says Jack Fiorito, UFF’s chapter chair at FSU. He cites his experience on the search committee that chose as the president of FSU a former business partner of the chair of the board of trustees. Another example faculty point to is the disparity between administrative salaries, which are higher than at comparable institutions, and faculty salaries, which are lower than those at the same institutions.
In the weeks before the election, UFF members turned out in droves to hear AFT vice president William Scheuerman discuss how his union, the United University Professions at the State University of New York (SUNY), has responded to political incursions by SUNY’s activist board of trustees. Also helping the Florida faculty to organize was Roy Vestrich, president of the United Professions of Vermont. The UFF chapter had an organizing committee of 150, notes AFT national representative Norm Holsinger. In addition, 19 distinguished faculty chair holders signed a letter to colleagues noting the importance of the faculty senate’s role in governance but the necessity of the union to protect the faculty’s voice and clout.
In the end, the voice of the faculty came through loud and clear in the 22-to-1 margin of victory, says Tom Auxter, president of the statewide UFF.
After strikes, two faculty unions settle
Faculty at two campuses of Long Island University (LIU) found themselves on picket lines at the start of the fall semester. First to go out was the Long Island University Faculty Federation/AFT (LIUFF), representing 250 full-time and 400 part-time faculty at the university’s Brooklyn campus. After a 10-day strike, they settled and ratified a three-year contract by a 5-to-1 margin on Sept. 12.The C.W. Post Collegial Federation/ AFT (CWPCF), representing 324 full-time faculty and librarians at LIU’s Brookville, N.Y., campus, was on strike Sept. 8-25. After a federal mediator stepped in, both sides were able to come to an agreement that union members ratified unanimously on Sept. 26.
At issue for both unions were administration proposals for no raises, workload increases and health benefit reductions coupled with cost increases. The university also tried to push through divisive measures in both contracts, pitting full-timers against part-timers on the Brooklyn campus and senior faculty against new hires at C.W. Post. The university also played hardball over salary increases, even though enrollments are up, tuition has been hiked and the university “opened negotiations saying we’re doing fine, financially,” says Howard Kushner, CWPCF treasurer and a member of the negotiating team.
Despite a history of having to strike for fair contracts at both campuses, faculty were far from battle weary. “Solidarity was unbelievable,” says Kushner. Students and the community came out to support striking faculty. “Administration put together a package that violated everybody’s sensibilities.”
“They finally got the message that we weren’t going to buckle under,” says Jordan Kaplan, LIUFF president. The federation’s three-year contract provides raises each year, as well as a workload reduction from as high as 24 credit hours per academic year to an 18-hour standard. In addition, the union convinced the university to contribute to a benefit trust fund to help adjuncts pay for health insurance.
The contract for the CWPCF achieves the same standardization of workload. The union negotiating team had to fight back the university’s attempt to get unlimited increases in class size in association with the nine-hour-per-term workload. Certain courses will allow an increase in class size of up to 15 percent, says Kushner.
The team waged another battle over healthcare. The university had wanted new employees to pay 50 percent of the premium for a family plan. “That would have been $12,000 a year,” says Kushner. Instead, the contract keeps premium costs the same for the first year. In the second year, members will pay 5 percent and in the third year, 7 percent. Salary increases are 3 percent, 4 percent and 4 percent for the three years of the contract, with 0.4 percent increases for longer-term faculty affected by salary compression.
The university is attempting to dock employees for the time they were on strike. At the Brooklyn campus, the union is grieving that issue. At C.W. Post, the amount of pay withheld from a striker is capped according to an arbiter’s formula. Faculty plan to provide students with the instruction they need to be kept “whole” despite missed classes in September, says Kushner.
Colo. faculty respond to tenure attacks
Faculty in Colorado have a number of reasons to want a union, not least of which is as protection from a state Legislature bent on trampling academic freedom.At Metropolitan State University, faculty have launched an organizing effort to protect tenure. They are confronting an activist board of trustees that has rewritten the faculty handbook without input or involvement from faculty. The revised handbook includes new regulations on tenure, collegiality and faculty governance and responsibilities. Faculty fear that the revised handbook could serve as a way for trustees to manipulate and eventually abolish tenure at the university.
Beyond the campus gates, faculty are seeing even more sinister assaults on academic freedom and institutional autonomy. In the Legislature, Republicans have put forth a plan to create an Academic Bill of Rights that would encourage—if not require—state colleges and universities to hire faculty with more conservative views. Its backers see the plan as a way to balance a higher education system that they regard as left-leaning and intolerant.
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education, state Senate president John Andrews and David Horowitz, the conservative leader of Students for Academic Freedom, support the plan. Gov. Bill Owens has yet to take a position. It remains unclear whether the Academic Bill of Rights, still in the planning stages, will become a legislative bill.
Oregon grad employees reach healthcare settlement
The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation/AFT (GTFF) reached a three-year healthcare agreement with the University of Oregon that lowers deductibles and provides a measure of protection against unpredictable rate hikes.GTFF, which represents more than 1,200 graduate teaching fellows and research assistants at the university, annually renegotiates parts of its healthcare agreement with the university in a process separate from the biennial collective bargaining contract negotiations. This year’s healthcare agreement extends through Sept. 15, 2006. The highlight of the settlement is a lowering of deductibles for single coverage from $200 to $100 and for family coverage from $600 to $300. The university also agreed to cover healthcare cost increases up to 20 percent each year. If costs increase beyond 20 percent, the university will cover 90 percent of the total increase.
Negotiations began in early summer. The union came to the table buoyed by a hefty balance of $170,000 in its Health and Welfare Trust Fund, money left over from the last year during which many graduate teaching fellows (GTFs) chose not to enroll in the healthcare plan. The GTFF proposed to use the fund to lower member premiums and expand coverage to families for the summer months. At the same time, it offered some savings to the cash-strapped university. The university’s proposal was to take the whole balance and maintain the status quo (higher premiums, no summer coverage), all the while touting its own magnanimity.
The GTFF’s web site (go to efn.org/~gtff) describes the dramatic September negotiation that ensued. With 200 GTFs in attendance, lead negotiator Jey Strengfeld reminded university negotiators what the trust was set up to do: serve the health and welfare of the graduate employees, not subsidize the university. The administration backed away from its proposal.
“This is an excellent agreement, considering the general financial condition of the state,” says Richard Schwarz, executive director of AFT Oregon.
