Advocate Online

NEA Affiliates in Action

Organizing
Faculty members on the University of Minnesota-Crookston campus voted in February in a state labor board supervised election to join their University of Minnesota-Duluth colleagues as members of the University Education Association, NEA's affiliate representing faculty there. The vote was close, 24 yes, 22 no. But since the election, 44 of a potential 48 members have joined the union. Faculty members cited many reasons for choosing union representation, including a need for a strong faculty voice. "It was a desire to be more of a unified faculty," said Ken Meyers, a professor of hotel management.

Adjunct faculty at Prairie State College in Illinois voted by a 2-to-1 margin for representation by the Illinois Education Association/NEA. This latest higher ed local is the eighth adjunct faculty local for the IEA in the Chicago area. Others are at Oakton Community College, the College of DuPage, Columbia College, Roosevelt College, the City Colleges, and Triton and Harper colleges.

Campus Activities
Two years after the state of Florida decentralized its higher education system and cancelled the statewide collective bargaining agreement between the university system and the United Faculty of Florida, a state appellate court has ruled that the state did not have a right to take away the faculty's collective bargaining rights.

When the United Faculty of Florida's (UFF) previous contract with the Board of Regents expired in January 2003, the state refused to renew it, so UFF undertook the arduous task of holding representational elections on the 11 campuses of the former system. Since then, United Faculty of Florida has won recognition on 10 of the 11 campuses and completed negotiations for new contracts on four of them.

Contracts
After months of political action, including demonstrations, lobbying, and other activities, the Massachusetts State College Association, NEA's higher ed affiliate representing the full- and-part-time faculty and librarians of the state's college system, has reached a tentative agreement with the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education on a contract for 2004–07.

Highlights of the agreement include a 3 percent across the board salary increase in each year of the agreement for full-time members, merit-based awards of different values by academic rank, and an adjustment to the minimum salary formula that calls for review of salaries under the formula at the execution of the contract, annually during the life of the contract, and in any post-expiration years.

Also in the agreement, part-time faculty would receive an annual increase of $50 per credit. Promotion and terminal degree adjustments, as well as professional development monies, would also increase by 3 percent each year. Other changes include an additional merit pay evaluation in the post-tenure review process. For more on the settlement, visit http://mscaunion.org/.

The University of Central Florida (UCF) chapter of the United Faculty of Florida became the third Florida university campus to successfully negotiate a new contract when the union and the university reached a tentative agreement in February. The agreement came after three weeks of discussions between the parties to narrow issues for an impasse hearing.

Key provisions of the agreement include an amount equal to 5 percent of the salary pool to be used for raises, including a 2 percent across the board increase, 1 percent for merit increases, and 1 percent each for equity and administrative discretionary market increases.