Advocate Online
NEA Affiliates in Action
Organizing
Faculty members at Western Washington University in Bellingham are close to a union vote, despite delay tactics by university administrators.
Members of the United Faculty of Western Washington (UFWW), an affiliate of NEA and the American Federation of Teachers and their state organizations, are awaiting a decision on the make-up of the bargaining unit from the state Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC).
UFWW supporters were poised to conduct a union vote last spring when the university administration asked the labor board to exclude faculty chairs, academic directors, and many part-time faculty from the voting. A PERC official heard the case, and a decision is expected by Nov. 26. Regardless of the outcome, a union vote at Western is likely in January or February. Roughly 720 faculty members should be eligible to cast ballots.
Last fall, faculty members at Eastern Washington University voted to unionize with the union winning 88 percent of the vote. Contracts
Thousands of employees of public colleges in Massachusetts will receive another installment of their retroactive pay raises after the state legislature last month restored $42.2 million in previously agreed to increases that had been vetoed by Gov. Mitt Romney when he took office in 2003.
The payment is the result of a campaign by Massachusetts higher education unions and the Massachusetts Teachers Association to win full funding of the reneged on contracts. The latest installment covers raises for the 2003-04 year. MTA President Catherine A. Boudreau said that the legislature has honored its agreement to fund three of the four pieces of the vetoed raises and that MTA is confident they will get the final piece funded.
Currently, three of the state's higher ed unions have negotiated new contracts that have either been funded by the legislature or submitted by the governor for funding. Contracts for faculty and staff at the University of Massachusetts are awaiting action by the governor's office.
Campus Activities
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has rejected a petition by the California State University to overturn an arbitration victory that affirmed the California Faculty Association's interpretation of faculty appeal rights under the now-defunct faculty merit increase (FMI) program.
The decision in a case of two CSU faculty members who filed grievances in 2000 over cuts in their merit awards by their campus presidents after faculty committees awarded them higher amounts may also benefit many similarly situated faculty on all 23 campuses.
The CFA has also signed an agreement with the CSU that will provide the faculty with a 3.5 percent general salary increase retroactive to July 1, 2005, while the parties continue negotiations on a range of other important issues, including step increases, retirement, workload, and protection for lecturers.
The president of Texas A&M University Kingsville has suspended the faculty senate pending the election of a new "Constitutional Task Force," but banned faculty senate executive committee members from serving on it. In 2002, Rumaldo Z. Juarez announced his goal to transform TAMUK into a research university, disregarding the faculty senate's concerns about his proposal. He then turned down 15 faculty members for promotion. Subsequently, the faculty senate voted no confidence in the president. The Texas Faculty Association believes that the president's actions are retaliatory for the vote of no confidence. For more information, go to www.tfaonline.net.
Two Blue Mountain Community College (OR) Faculty Association-recommended candidates were elected this fall to the college's board of trustees, with the support of a coalition of Oregon Education Association community college members, K-12 OEA members, student activists, and unions.
The faculty union and the board had a history of contentious negotiations, and the board had recently forced the implementation of a contract on the faculty. The election of new board members sends a clear message that the stakeholders want positive change, notes the faculty association. |
