NEA Affiliates in Action

Organizing
More than 100 part-time faculty at the College of DuPage, in the Chicago suburbs, have won union recognition after an election last month, despite a state labor law that makes it difficult for adjunct faculty to win union rights in Illinois.

The College of DuPage Adjuncts Association battled for three years to win recognition for the more than 1,000 part-time faculty who teach at the college but have been stymied by the law. In the end, the Association, with strong support from the college's full-time faculty Association and with the backing of three Illinois Education Association members on the college Board of Trustees, persuaded the college to grant union organizing rights to 123 part-time faculty members.

The IEA and its partners in the Chicago-area Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor are continuing efforts to make the state's bargaining law fairer to part-time faculty. An IEA-supported bill has already passed the state legislature with bipartisan support and will reach the Senate this spring.

Contracts
The Camden County College Faculty Association is this year's winner of the New Jersey Education Association's Jim George Collective Bargaining Award.

In this year's negotiations—which the Association leadership began preparing for three years ago—the Association eliminated a two-tier health benefits plan forced on them in their last negotiations and won the highest salary increases in any college or university agreement in New Jersey in nearly a decade.

The Association also won breakthrough language on distance education and intellectual property that, notes NJEA staffer Chris Berzinski, "will serve as a model for colleges throughout New Jersey and in other states."

In addition, the three-year agreement includes an innovative peer evaluation program that provides for mentoring of untenured faculty by their senior colleagues.
"The Camden faculty can now see that internal organizing, preparation, and unity really do yield great results," said Berzinski.

Campus Activities
The United Faculty of Florida, NEA's affiliate representing faculty at Florida's 11 state universities, is embroiled in a major academic freedom battle, following a decision by the University of South Florida Board of Trustees to recommend the firing of a tenured faculty member.

The faculty member, Dr. Sami al-Arian, an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in the Middle East, has been at the center of a controversy resulting from those views. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the university suspended Dr. al-Arian because of a public outcry against his appearance on a national television show.

President Judy Genshaft said the university began termination procedures because al-Arian's presence on campus put the university at risk.

The United Faculty of Florida contract requires that the university show cause before a tenured faculty member can be dismissed and provides an appeal process that ends in binding arbitration. Dr. al-Arian has indicated he will exercise his contractual rights.

The California Faculty Association will be holding a joint rally February 9 with the Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Union Local 2, against California State University system chancellor Charles Reed and the Marriott Hotel in San Francisco.

"The Marriott," says CFA, "just like Chancellor Reed, has refused to bargain a fair contract." The Marriott workers voted for a union in 1996 and have been trying to negotiate a contract since.

The California Faculty Association has had a stormy bargaining relationship with the CSU since Reed's arrival as chancellor. Reed will be at the hotel to address the American Council on Education convention.

Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville faculty striving to bring collective bargaining to their campus have been granted a charter by NEA and the Illinois Education Association.

The boards of both organizations approved the charters this past year in recognition of increasing membership in the campus chapter.