PrintWhile the organizing committee of United Faculty of Western Washington/AFT-NEA recognizes that the challenge was most likely a stalling tactic, they are looking forward, they say, “to continuing to work with all those genuinely committed to the educational mission of the university,” including chairs, directors, part-timers and administrators. They are eager to address such issues as shared governance, improved working conditions, increased salary and benefits and clear grievance procedures.
Meanwhile, at Central Washington, faculty voted by a 96 percent margin to ratify a first contract between the 18-month-old United Faculty of Central (UFC)/AFT/NEA and university administrators. Among the highlights of the two-year contract: an 11 percent overall compensation increase for tenured and tenure-track faculty; 8.25 percent cost-of-living increases over the next two years for assistant, associate and full professors’ rank minimums; one-time payments of $600 to all full-time faculty; and a 1 percent merit bonus for qualifying faculty. There are also new long-term disability premiums picked up by the university, guaranteed base salaries for assistant, associate and full professors, and a 7.5 percent increase in department chair compensation. Nonmonetary issues are equally important: Academic freedom, discrimination and harassment prevention, workload and tenure decisions are all clarified in the new contract.
Daniel CannCasciato, UFC president and chair of the bargaining team, attributes the success to a well-chosen bargaining team guided by AFT’s national representative Gary Pagels. The team, says CannCasciato, had a combined 200 years experience in positions like department head and university senate, while administrators had maybe 15. Because the group commanded such respect its negotiations were especially effective.
“We were able to be very articulate as to what we thought the culture of the organization was and should continue to be, and why that was important to preserve,” says CannCasciato.
Wisconsin tries for bargaining bill
Senate Bill 452 would allow collective bargaining for UW faculty and professional staff. More than 30 AFT-Wisconsin faculty and academic staff members from seven different campuses participated in the hearing, while a growing number of members from each of the UW campuses have been actively advancing this effort through meetings with legislators, communications with co-workers, and contributions to the game plan for winning collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin.
The governor’s office lent its weight in favor of the bill when Karen Timberlake, from the Office of State Employment Relations (OSER), emphasized Gov. Jim Doyle’s strong commitment to bargaining rights for Wisconsin public employees, including UW faculty and academic staff. Even students came to support the cause, with United Council of UW Students’ government relations director Brian Tanner testifying that collective bargaining would help the university attract the top quality faculty that students need to thrive.
If SB 452 passes, it would allow some 17,000 faculty and academic staff in Wisconsin to join colleagues in 29 other states with collective bargaining rights, according to Schultz’s testimony. “Over one-quarter million university staff are union members across the country, and we want to extend this opportunity to academic employees at the University of Wisconsin system,” says Andy Gussert, president of AFT-Wisconsin. “This legislation is long overdue,” adds Ray Spoto, vice president for higher education, WI-AFT. “That’s why it’s vital to the future of public higher education ...in Wisconsin for faculty and academic staff to have the right to stronger, significant voices.” The union’s work in the capital and on the campuses will continue to ensure that happens.
Nurturing a nurse education task force
The federal government expects a shortage of 1 million nurses by 2020. That shortage isn’t going away unless new nurses can be educated and prepared to fill the gap. But from 2004 to 2005, nursing schools turned away 32,000 qualified students, a rejection rate more than double the year before, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The primary reason for the rejections: faculty shortages. Seven percent of the faculty positions at 690 bachelor’s and graduate nursing programs are vacant, similar problems are plaguing two-year programs, and pending retirement will only exacerbate the issue.
What to do? The AFT started by putting together a joint task force of AFT Healthcare and AFT Higher Education members, and in December published a list of recommendations to address the nursing faculty shortage. Chief among them is creating a work environment conducive to recruiting new nursing faculty, and retaining those already in place. That means boost those salaries, improve benefits and support the unions that fight for better working conditions. Other recommendations include increasing public and private funding for training programs, developing innovative teaching methods and encouraging collaboration between faculty and facilities to take advantage of all available resources. (See “Recommendations of the AFT Nurse Faculty Shortage Task Force” at http://leadernet.aft.org/divisions/healthcare/update/
FinalReport10_05.pdf.)
First and foremost is salary. “Faculty salaries just have not kept up with the salaries that well-educated, quality nurses can make in the clinical arena,” says Jane Williams, chair of the nursing department at Rhode Island College in Providence and a member of the task force. “Nurse practitioners are being hired at $75,000 to start. All I can offer them is $48,000.”
Along with salary, other recommendations involving working conditions include: incentives for mentoring, reasonable clinical and classroom teacher-student ratios, pedagogical training for nursing teachers, professional development, and teaching assistants and stipends for faculty support.
Also important is the amount of money available for developing and expanding nursing education. The task force urges support for full funding of federal workforce development programs like the Nurse Reinvestment Act, and willingness to negotiate with medical agencies for financial and personnel resources; lobbying for increased state funding, support for nursing education research, and improving the public image of nursing education. Union locals are encouraged to address state funding through their local legislators.
Thinking outside the box also could increase the effectiveness of nursing education, and the report recommends updated and nontraditional approaches to teaching a new generation of nurses. For example, clinical simulation—which uses breathing, talking mannequins as stand-ins for patients—expands the number of opportunities students have to work in a “clinical” setting. Accelerated programs of study and streamlined or reduced prerequisites for graduate study are other possibilities.
Finally, the task force lists collaboration to better integrate nursing faculty and healthcare institutions. Formal partnerships between schools and clinical facilities, shared resources and roles for retiring nurse faculty could improve nursing education. At the State University of New York-Stony Brook, such an arrangement between the university and its own University Hospital Medical Center has already begun to produce more nurse educators. “It’s a mutually beneficial partnership,” says Ora James Bouey, assistant dean and director of international nursing studies at SUNY and a member of United University Professions/AFT.
“Unions can play a very important role in addressing the nurse faculty shortage,” says Williams, citing the attention they bring to salaries and funding. “We must put pressure on funding agencies so we can have enough nurses in this country. Otherwise, healthcare will suffer.”
UUP launches state policy lectures
Now UUP is institutionalizing its influence on state government with a new legislative lecture series.
The first installment featured Barry Boyer, a faculty member at the University of Buffalo Law School, with a lecture in November called “Can we find the dollars—and sense—to protect New York’s environment?” Other lectures will cover issues as they come up for legislation (gun control and economic development are two possibilities). They will be scheduled once or twice a semester, according to Fred Floss, UUP vice president for academics, and will occur in the state capital, making it easy for legislators as well as the public to attend.
“The more we can make legislators and the community realize that we’re more than just a bunch of faculty members that maybe teach a couple kids, the better,” says Floss. Community service is a large part of professors’ lives, he says, and their contributions help make sure “that New York state grows and works well.” He hopes legislators will realize that faculty can be an important source of expertise on an array of issues relevant to policymaking. One legislative staffer joked that “maybe someone could talk to us before we put [policy] into law,” laughs Floss.
The UUP lecture series is co-sponsored with Sen. Kenneth LaValle and Assemblyman Ron Canestrari, chairmen of the Senate and Assembly Standing Committees on Higher Education—another important alliance for UUP.
