[Vision2020] An update on unions in higher education

[Moscow Cares]

Courtesy of today’s (August 16, 2018) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with special thanks to Nick Gier.

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His View: An update on unions in higher education

By Nick Gier

The advance of higher education unions has stalled at about 375,000 faculty - 21 percent of private schools and 35 percent of public colleges and universities. This significant movement has leveled off primarily because 23 states still do not allow collective bargaining in the public sector. If they did, faculty unions would be as strong as they are in K-12, where those teachers are 75 percent unionized.

Faculty at most major public universities have not chosen the advantages of collective bargaining, presumably because they believe unions are beneath them and they belong only at second-tier colleges and universities. For example, Western, Central, Eastern Washington Universities, Evergreen College and Washington community colleges have enjoyed the benefits of union contracts for years, while the University of Washington and Washington State University professors have demurred.

The one exception is Oregon State University, where 2,400 faculty this spring chose the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors to represent them in negotiations.

After the OSU election, AFT national President Randi Weingarten announced: "We will have the OSU faculty's back as they negotiate a first contract to preserve shared governance, improve working conditions and create the best possible environment for teaching, learning, research and outreach."

While the faculty at the University of Michigan have declined their option to vote for a union, the lecturers there have finalized a contract that would increase their abysmal salaries by 30 percent, boosting their retirement income, improve health care and strengthen job security. Their subpar starting salaries will go from $12,700 to $16,500 per year, still not a living wage.

Using public sector bargaining laws, more than 64,000 graduate assistants have unionized at 28 public institutions in California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington. The AFT, AAUP, the National Education Association and the United Autoworkers have been chosen to represent teachers who have taken over an ever-larger share of instruction on our campuses.

In August 2016, primarily because of President Barack Obama's appointments, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate student teachers at private universities are bona fide employees. They can now unionize under the National Labor Relations Act, the law that has allowed collective bargaining in the private sector since 1935.

A 1980 Supreme Court decision upholding a view that faculty at private institutions are managers has limited unionization there. The NRLB, however, has determined adjunct faculty at these schools are employees, and since 2012 there has been a 26 percent increase in bargaining units (20 more) on these campuses.

As a result of the NLRB's decision on graduate assistants, there has been a dramatic increase in union drives by them at private, elite universities. They have chosen the AFT to represent them at Yale, Brown, Northwestern, Georgetown, University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University and the University of Chicago.

The United Autoworkers are also doing very well in their recruitment efforts, representing graduate student workers at Harvard, Columbia, Tufts, the New School for Social Research, New York University, Boston College and the University of Washington.

Graduate students finishing their degrees and entering the job market will find fewer tenure-track positions, as the percentage of professors in those position has declined dramatically from 70 to 30 percent. Those who were union members in graduate school and fortunate enough to be hired on tenure track will be future union leaders on their campuses.

Most undergraduate teaching is now done by part- or full-time faculty on renewable contracts or by graduate assistants. It is absolutely imperative they join academic unions to improve their salaries, benefits and working conditions. Without collective bargaining, they are very vulnerable and easily exploited.

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
  
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