On the Road
with Valerie Wilk

This year we did something new before the annual NEA higher education conference. At the invitation of the 53-member organizing committee of United Faculty of Western Washington (UFWW), 18 faculty leaders from NEA and AFT visited Western Washington University in Bellingham, where they engaged in frank and practical conversations about what life is like for faculty working under union contracts.

UFWW is conducting a card drive to gain union representation as a joint affiliate of NEA and AFT.

To help them make up their minds, Western Washington University faculty got to hear panel discussions around campus, engage in one-on-one conversations, and attend a public forum. They heard how unions and faculty senates work together to promote shared governance, how unions interact with administrations, and what unions have accomplished to better their universities.

The NEA delegation included NEA board members Mike Ryan (MI) and Ann Shadwick (CA); California Faculty Association leaders John Travis and Patricia Evridge Hill; Mary Tiles, president of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly; Morteza Daneshdoost and Marvin Zeman, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Faculty Association leaders; and Patricia Merrier and Don Harriss from the University Education Association in Minnesota.

UAE President Pat Merrier called the experience “very reaffirming.” CFA president John Travis recommended that organizing become a permanent part of the higher ed conference.

And Dan Georgianni, president of the UMass-Dartmouth local of AFT summed up the day’s activities: “For most of us, it was a chance to go back to our roots.”

— Valerie Wilk coordinates NEA higher ed activities.