Chicago settles after three-week strike

The 1,300 faculty and professional staff and the 65,000 students of the City Colleges of Chicago returned to class Nov. 8, after three weeks out on the picket line. The drama brought to a close more than 16 months of negotiations between the Cook County College Teachers Union, which represents faculty and professionals at the seven colleges in the system, and lawyers hired by the CCC administration.

After the union and administration declared impasse, federal mediation commenced and employees went on strike Oct. 19. CCCTU president Perry Buckley addressed a public meeting of the CCC board of trustees on Nov. 4 and demanded to sit opposite decision-makers at the bargaining table. Within 10 hours of face-to-face negotiations between the union’s chief negotiators and the CCC chancellor and board chair, the two sides had reached a tentative agreement. Both sides also credited the intercession of the Rev. James Meeks, an Illinois state senator, in bringing them to the table. Meeks attended the Nov. 4 board meeting and intervened at the request of students, who were organized and vocal in their support of their teachers.

The new contract was ratified at a Nov. 7 meeting, at which 95 percent of union members present voted to approve it.

The four-year contract provides 4 percent salary increases each year and keeps family health insurance cost increases to $750 a year. It also provides that nursing instructors are paid for every hour they spend teaching, both in class and in clinics. Most important, the agreement resolves the primary sticking point in negotiations, which led to the strike. The administration demanded that full-time faculty increase their workload from 12 classroom hours a semester to 15 hours. Because class sizes have been increasing over the past few years in the cash-strapped system, says Buckley, the union maintained that faculty workload already was stretched and educational quality compromised. The settlement postpones that discussion until the next contract negotiations.

Students played an important role in reaching settlement. The student government association voted to support the faculty, and most students didn’t cross the picket lines, despite the fact that part-time faculty who were represented by a different union were required by their contract to continue teaching. Students and faculty demonstrated outside the Nov. 4 board meeting that eventually led to the final talks; one student was arrested. The union also took advantage of strategic advertising in the strike’s final week. It sponsored traffic reports on key radio programs, which ended with a tag line asking for the public’s support for quality education.

“The students and advertising were a great support to our teachers on the picket lines,” says Buckley.

The settlement covers four separate agreements for the 550 full-time faculty, 200 full-time and 150 part-time nonteaching professionals and 500 campus police.

Council takes up resolutions referred from convention

The AFT executive council met in October and voted on several resolutions referred to it by AFT convention delegates last summer. These included one opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment, another denouncing the Bush administration’s record on science and two dealing with international issues.

In addition to approving these four resolutions, the council postponed action on one and tabled two resolutions. A total of about 40 resolutions were referred to the council at the close of the AFT’s convention in July and are being considered over the course of the next few council meetings.

The first, “Opposition to Federal Marriage Amendment,” opposes a proposed constitutional amendment that would take away the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to enter into civil marriage.

“If passed, the Federal Marriage Amendment would become the first constitutional amendment to restrict the rights of a certain class of Americans,” notes the resolution. In addition, such an amendment “would make it virtually impossible to maintain and negotiate benefits on behalf of our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers,” and “could invalidate thousands of union contracts that include domestic partnership benefit provisions.”

Another resolution, “Bush Administration Threats to Science and Scientific Integrity,” notes that “accurate and unbiased scientific information” is essential in making government policy. But a pattern of “suppression and distortion of scientific findings” related to air pollution, global warming, mercury pollution, childhood lead poisoning, reproductive health and drug-resistant bacteria has emerged within the Bush administration, says the resolution, along with irregularities in the appointment of scientific advisers and advisory panels. (See the October 2004 AFT On Campus for an in-depth story on federal science policy.)

The administration has “placed people who are professionally unqualified or who have clear conflicts of interest in official posts and on scientific advisory committees, has disbanded advisory committees before their work was complete, and has censored and suppressed reports by government scientists,” says the AFT, which is calling for congressional oversight hearings.

In the international arena, the council approved a resolution expressing the union’s alarm over persistent violence in Colombia against teachers and other workers. Trade unionists continue to be the targets of threats, physical intimidation, displacement and even assassination, says the AFT, leading the annual report of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions to designate Colombia the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. The resolution also expresses the union’s deep concern about the Colombian government’s recent efforts to modify the country’s labor law, threatening collective bargaining rights in the public and teaching sectors.

The council also approved a resolution expressing concern over the fate of residents of the Caribbean island of Montserrat who are threatened by ongoing eruptions from the Soufriere Hills volcano. AFT’s concerns include the immigration status of several hundred who have fled to the United States.

Action on one resolution, “Endorse the Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming,” was postponed to allow more time for consideration, and two resolutions—“Presidential Election Reform” and “Living Wage for All”—were tabled.

Adjuncts press for equity in Pennsylvania

Most educators know that part-time and adjunct professors are underpaid and overworked, driving from one campus to another, working without office space or computer access, and often living without health benefits. Now, a government report raises additional concern, showing just how dependent our institutions have become on these poorly treated workers.

The Report of the Advisory Committee on Part-time Faculty, generated by a Pennsylvania state commission, called for public hearings on higher ed. The first of these was held in September, where Barry George, of the Faculty and Staff Federation of the Community College of Philadelphia/AFT, cited the report’s data for the House Education Committee of the Pennsylvania Assembly. He said that 82.5 percent of the faculty at state community colleges work part-time. “When most people think about the part-time faculty at a community college, they probably think this means a relatively small number of people who ... teach a course in their area of ‘outside’ expertise,” testified George, who teaches English, tutors students and is also coordinator of the Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers/AFT Equity Pay Project. This “is not at all what the situation is today.” In fact, the part-time teaching population is almost five times that of full-time professors.

Testimony at the hearing showed how adjuncts not only juggle multiple classes but also multiple campuses. They have no time to consult with students after class, as they must rush off to the next class at the next campus. Furthermore, they are denied professional development opportunities, such as workshops and conferences, and cannot participate in faculty governance. They’re not even paid equitably: John Murray, a part-time instructor of mathematics at Bucks County Community College, testified that part-time instructors there make less than half the amount per course that full-time faculty members bring home.

It was an earful of evidence for the Education Committee to consider as they weigh major changes in higher education policy for the state, and it gave real-life credibility to the report’s warning that ill-treated part-time faculty now outnumber full-time colleagues. If working conditions do not improve, the integrity of higher education will be threatened.

PFT is urging the Education Committee to take the next step and introduce legislation requiring full funding to provide the equitable pay, access to health and retirement benefits, and better working conditions recommended in the report. Ultimately, the union aims to improve the lot of adjunct professors and, by extension, the state of higher education.

Temple talks crossing rocky terrain

The Temple Association of University Professors (TAUP) filed an unfair labor practice charge against the university less than a week after the full-time faculty and staff’s contract expired Oct. 15. The union, which is affiliated with the AFT, has been negotiating with the university since June, but as of November could report zero progress on any portion of the contract.

That’s not why the union filed the charge with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, however. TAUP charges that the university sent bargaining unit members “misleading and provocative” communications about the progress of negotiations, which is a violation of the state’s labor code.

This enmity contrasts with the pattern of the past three contracts, which the union and university settled amicably and early. The biggest difference this time around is the university president. David Adamany, who came to Temple from serving as superintendent of the Detroit public schools, and prior to that, as president of Wayne State University, “has a history of rancorous relations with unions,” notes TAUP chief negotiator Art Hochner. “He’s an autocrat.”

Wayne faculty had to strike over three contracts before Adamany left in 1996. “He’s a top-down manager who had little regard for faculty,” adds Jan Thompson, executive director of the AFT-affiliated Wayne State Association of University Professors. “He wanted to put resources into buildings, grounds and students, but not faculty.”

TAUP is seeking 4 percent salary increases across the board and an increase in merit pay. The union also is seeking to improve benefits for full-time nontenured faculty, fewer than 10 percent of whom receive any contribution toward their pensions. The university is offering a 1.5 percent merit-based salary increase and a 25 percent hike in the faculty’s contribution to health insurance, in addition to increasing co-payments.

Beyond compensation, faculty are more deeply concerned over changes the president is trying to make that affect governance. For example, management seeks to reduce faculty consultation in the process of selecting department chairs, in promotion and tenure decisions and in committees. The president’s style shows “a history of micromanagement,” says William Cutler, a professor of history who is TAUP’s president. The local represents 1,200 full-time faculty and professional staff.

“Rather than sitting down and working in good faith, the university has tried to mislead and scare faculty,” he says. “They refused to talk about many serious issues until the last hours before the contract expired, and they have proposed restructuring the university in a way that places academic policies in the hands of those who generally handle business decisions.”