Advocate Online

NEA Affiliates in Action

Organizing
Faculty at Western Washington University have joined with colleagues at two other universities in the state system in choosing the United Faculty of Washington State/AFT/NEA to represent them in collective bargaining. The vote in favor of unionization, announced Feb. 23, was 300 to 284 in this unit of 777 full- and part-time faculty.

United Faculty of Western Washington began organizing two years ago, but a challenge to the bargaining unit by the university administration delayed the union vote for nearly a year.

“Today is a great day for the faculty at Western and for our efforts to improve the lives and futures of the students of Washington state,” says Steven Garfinkle, an associate history professor and UFWW organizing committee member. “We are committed to working with the administration to fulfill the mission of the university.”

Contracts
Members of the newly formed United Faculty of Central Washington University have approved their first ever collective bargaining agreement by a margin of 96 percent. The union, part of the United Faculty of Washington State/AFT/NEA, and the university reached agreement in February and the university's Board of Trustees ratified the contract in March.

The contract, which runs from 2006-09, calls for overall compensation increases for tenured and tenure-track faculty of about 11 percent in the first two years, with a re-opener for salary negotiations in 2007.

Non-tenure-track faculty will receive an 8.25 percent COLA, with some eligible for a 10 percent salary advancement.

The contract also includes new language supporting academic freedom, preventing discrimination and harassment, addressing workload, and establishing clear criteria for tenure decisions.

Campus Activities
Following an organizing campaign built around George Lakoff's influential work, Don't Think of an Elephant, faculty union members at Solano College in Fairfield, California not only built a stronger chapter, they also triumphed at the bargaining table, winning a contract that includes a salary increase and maintenance of health benefits.

Assisted by a California Teachers Association Strategic Organizing Grant, the Solano chapter began the school year by putting forth the question: “Does it honor and empower teaching and learning?”

The question, reprinted on buttons and banners, helped frame discussions of the role of the college and fair treatment for faculty. “We wanted to instill the campus with this as our value system,” said chapter president Diane White.

A landmark decision by the California Public Employment Relations Board gives arbitrators deciding faculty grievances the authority to award tenure in reappointment and promotion cases.

In the past, arbitrators, unsure about their authority, rarely granted tenure or monetary awards to the faculty. Two years ago the California Faculty Association filed an unfair labor practice on the issue, and the Public Employment Relations Board has now sided with the union.

“The labor board win is probably the biggest case that CFA has ever won,” said CFA Director of Representation Ed Purcell, who has been working on this case for years. Purcell said the decision would give CFA a strong case for improving the contract's grievance language during the current negotiations.

In an opinion affirming the importance of faculty members' ownership of intellectual property, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled late last year that intellectual property can be a subject of collective bargaining.