Court rules against Pace University  

A federal appeals court has ruled that Pace University must bargain with a unit of adjunct and part-time employees that includes up to 350 more members than the university had been willing to recognize. The dispute has hampered negotiations between the university and the Union of Adjunct Faculty at Pace/AFT, which was elected as bargaining agent in early 2004. Despite two rulings in the union's favor-one from a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board and another from the full board itself-the university chose to take the case into the judicial system by appealing. On Jan. 25, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the two prior rulings, settling once and for all an argument that let the university stall for more than three years on its obligation to bargain.

In the dispute, the university had wanted the makeup of the bargaining unit to be defined in the same way as the unit had been defined for purposes of holding an election. In order to vote in 2004, adjuncts had to have taught at least three credit hours or 45 hours in at least two prior consecutive semesters. Once the union was elected, the board certified the unit as those who were currently teaching that courseload. The university wanted the adjuncts not to be considered part of the unit until after they had worked two semesters.

The union and university were scheduled to go back to the bargaining table shortly after the court issued its ruling. UAFP president John Pawlowski says he's looking forward to getting into some substantive negotiations. "We have resolved little issues like jury duty leave, sick leave and so on. But the big issues of job security, salary and benefits are untouched.

"The adjuncts are getting antsy," he adds. "We want things resolved and we want a contract. We teach two-thirds of the courses, so it would make quite a difference if we went to the picket lines."

McElroy and LaCour announce plans to retire 

AFT president Edward J. McElroy and secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour have announced their plans to retire from leading the 1.4 million-member national union. Both McElroy and LaCour, who made the announcement at the AFT executive council meeting in San Diego on Feb. 12, will continue to serve in their current capacities until the July 2008 AFT convention in Chicago.

McElroy has served as AFT president since 2004. He was secretary-treasurer for 12 years prior to that, during the presidencies of Albert Shanker and Sandra Feldman. Since December 2001, he has been a member of the AFL-CIO executive council. He began his career as a social studies and English teacher in Warwick, R.I., and was elected president of the Warwick Teachers Union in 1967. At the age of 30, he became president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, positions he held until 1992, when he came to Washington, D.C.

During McElroy's 16-year tenure as a national officer, the AFT has added more than 500,000 new members nationwide, dramatically expanded the union's member-to-member political outreach efforts and emphasized the importance of helping affiliates develop internal capabilities to perform key functions.

LaCour was the first AFT executive vice president, a position to which he was elected in 1998. In 2004, he was elected AFT secretary-treasurer and became a member of the AFL-CIO executive council. Prior to coming to Washington, D.C., LaCour led the United Teachers of New Orleans for 28 years. Under his guidance, UTNO in 1974 became the first teachers union in the Deep South to obtain a collective bargaining agreement with a local school district-notably accomplished in a state without a collective bargaining law.

"Ed McElroy and Nat LaCour are leaders for whom solidarity is not a slogan; it is a guiding principle that orders their priorities," says AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney.