NEA Affiliates in Action

Organizing
The United Faculty of Central Washington University, a joint affiliate of the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers, has joined a statewide legislative effort to gain collective bargaining rights for the state's four-year college faculty.

The state's community college faculty have collective bargaining rights under the law, and Central University's sister institution, Eastern Washington University, has voluntarily granted bargaining rights to its faculty in another joint NEA-AFT Association.

Continuing education faculty at the University of Massachusetts-Boston are waiting for the state's labor board to schedule a vote on their petition to be represented in collective bargaining by the UMass Faculty Staff Union, NEA's affiliate on campus.

The union represents full- and part-time faculty in the day program and won big pension and health care gains for part-timers during their last negotiations. The continuing ed faculty want union pay and benefits, too.

Contracts
A neutral factfinder has recommended that the California State University drop its merit pay system. The recommendation comes after the California Faculty Association reached impasse in its negotiations with the university, primarily over the merit pay issue.

The California State University system's five-year-old faculty merit pay program seems ill-conceived and poorly administered, noted the factfinder, and should be scrapped until a more workable plan can be developed. The factfinder concluded that the merit pay program fails to meet basic standards recommended by compensation experts.

Graduate Assistants United, an affiliate of the United Faculty of Florida, has finalized a new contract with Florida A&M University, following a parallel win at the University of South Florida.

The contract featured a $1,000 raise in minimum salaries, a three percent across-the-board raise, and a funding search for 12-month health insurance.

Campus Activities
United Faculty of Florida members working in Florida's universities and community colleges have told their union, through a recent poll, that their highest legislative priority is increased funding for higher education, both generally and for such specific uses as labs and technology.

The faculty surveyed also want the Florida State University system to hire more full-time faculty to keep up with the growing student population and to preserve tenure and continuing contract status for higher education faculty and professional employees.

Other issues of concern: Bringing salaries and benefits for higher education faculty and professionals at least to the national average, and including faculty and professionals in policy-making decisions.

Finally, UFF members see their union as the best vehicle to articulate faculty views to political leaders and legislators, and they recognize that endorsing and supporting candidates with campaign contributions is a necessary part of this strategy.

James Thompson, co-president of Graduate Students United, an affiliate of the United Faculty of Florida and NEA, has won the "Service to the Profession Award" for graduate student activism, from the Teachers for a Democratic Culture and Workplace.

The award, given in recognition of James's exceptionally committed contributions to the dignity of the academic workplace, was presented at the Modern Language Association annual meeting.

See the spring issue of Workplace, on the Web at www.workplace-gsc.com for a profile of James.

California Governor Gray Davis has signed into law a California Faculty Association-sponsored bill that requires the California State University Board of Trustees to develop policies to prohibit unauthorized recording of classroom lectures.

Specifically, the bill prohibits any business, agency, or person from publishing, selling, or otherwise transferring any contemporaneous recording of an academic presentation.

The new law also urges the state's other colleges to come up with similar plans.