Advocate Online
NEA Affiliates in Action
Organizing
As the school year begins, the United Faculty
of Florida (UFF) is stepping up its membership drive on all
11 of the state’s campuses. Already, UFF organizing efforts have
produced more than 800 new members across the state, voluntary recognition
of UFF as bargaining agent for faculty on seven campuses, and a decisive
secret-ballot union election victory on another campus.
But this fall, collective bargaining
begins on seven of the state’s campuses and UFF is getting ready. “The
administration doesn’t just grace the faculty with a contract,” notes
UFF President Tom Auxter, a philosophy professor at the University of
Florida. “Contracts are earned through the strength of the faculty.”
Also on tap early this fall, a secret
ballot union representation vote at Florida State University and litigation
over a representation vote at the University of Florida.
UFF was forced to reorganize its campuses
after Governor Jeb Bush dismantled the state higher ed system and voided
the statewide agreement.
Contracts
Faculty at Metropolitan Community College
in Omaha, Nebraska, are big winners in their 2001–02 contract
settlement thanks to the efforts of the Metropolitan Community College
Education Association and the NEA Higher Education Research Office.
Stalemated at the bargaining table by
the college’s insistence on comparing Metro’s salaries only
to smaller, rural Nebraska colleges, the Association argued successfully
before the state’s Court of Industrial Relations—using data
from NEA’s College and University Data System and information gathered
by Nebraska Higher Ed UniServ Director Roger Larsen—that the correct
salary comparison was with peer institutions in metropolitan areas in
neighboring states.
The result: an 8.1 percent salary increase
for the 2001–02 contract year, and an average salary increase of
$10,000 over two years. A comparison to Nebraska colleges, as proposed
by the employer, would have resulted in a 3 percent increase.
Campus
Activities
In Pendleton, Oregon, the entire community,
it seems, is in an uproar over the contract negotiations
between Blue Mountain Community College Faculty Association and
the college. To date, the Association has filed four unfair labor
practice charges and one civil lawsuit against the district for
actions taken during contract negotiations.
The Blue Mountain Community College Faculty
Association includes approximately 130 full- and part-time members who
are strongly resisting the college president's demands to cut programs,
slash benefits, reduce full-time faculty to part-time status, and more.
The local newspaper, in an editorial, laid blame at the feet of college
president Travis Kirkland, “for the rift that exists between the
administration and the teaching staff.”
While the parties continue to bargain,
the Association has the option to exercise its right to strike in the
event the district attempts to implement all or part of its offer.
The California
Faculty Association (CFA) is conducting a major effort to register
and educate students for the pending special election on the recall
of Governor Gray Davis. Student interns have been hired on each campus
and are heading up drives to register voters and get out the vote.
California State University Associated Students, “Rock the Vote,” Jesse
Jackson’s Campus Tour for Justice, and other groups are participating
in the campaign.
CFA and its parent organization, the
California Teachers Association, oppose the recall effort.
Illinois Governor
Rod R. Blagojevich has signed into law an Illinois Education
Association-supported community college part-time academic employee
bill that decreases from 6 to 3 the number of credit hours of instruction
per academic semester that defines a part-time community college academic
employee under the Illinois Education Labor Relations Act (IELRA).
The law increases the number of community
college academic employees who will be covered by the IELRA and who will
be eligible to join unions and bargain collectively. |
