NEA: Higher Education Advocate OnLine

97 RA: 'A Defining Moment for NEA'
Delegates Point Association Toward a New Unionism

Almost 200 higher education members were among the more than 9,000 voting delegates who made history in Atlanta last month.

After an impassioned two-hour debate on July 5, the NEA's 78th annual Representative Assembly gave the green light to local affiliates that seek to explore peer assistance and review options.

Peer review--no stranger to higher education members, who have experienced the pluses and minuses of the process for many years--proved a hotly contested issue for many K-12 colleagues. Many of those who questioned peer review worried about "pitting teachers against teachers."

"We work to save our members' jobs," New Jersey Education Association President Dennis Testa told the Assembly. I don't want members to fear coming to my Association for help.

Others argued that education professionals must help define and improve education.

When the votes were counted, NEA President Bob Chase told the press that NEA had taken a big step toward ensuring quality in the teaching profession. "Our delegates said clearly that they want to take control of their profession," he noted.

In another precedent-shattering action, the Assembly elected an education support staffer, Iona Holloway, an instructional assistant from Louisiana, to the NEA Executive Committee.

Delegates also elected a higher education support staffer to the NEA Board of Directors. Rosemary Riley, president of NEA's University of Massachusetts Amherst higher ed staff affiliate, the University Staff Association, and a UMass bookkeeper, will serve a two-year term on NEA's governing body.

In other actions, the RA reaffirmed NEA's long-standing support for affirmative action and honored affiliates forging new ground in collective bargaining.

Brian Nelson, outgoing president of the United Faculty of Florida, was one of the delegates who described innovative approaches to collective bargaining now being used in negotiations across the nation.

Nelson described the "collegial bargaining" process UFF had used in its most recent contract negotiations."We chose collegial bargaining from a position of strength, not weakness," Nelson told his fellow delegates.

After winning an Unfair Labor Practice charge filed against the state university system, Nelson said, the UFF approached the Board of Regents and proposed that they "discuss fundamental issues of importance to both sides" and try to find common ground.

"The Board realized that the union was no longer subject to its arbitrary whims," said Nelson. "It had an interest in cooperative working relations with us."

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