Organizing

Campus Activities

Contracts

Organizing

Faculty at New Mexico Highlands University are NEA's newest higher education members.

The joint affiliate of NEA New Mexico and the New Mexico Federation of Teachers is the first four-year college faculty union in the state.

The vote to begin collective bargaining was 61-17. Almost 80 percent of those eligible voted in the election.

Organizers are now signing up new members and preparing for their first bargaining session, with the help of NEA's higher ed training cadre.

The United Faculty of Florida sponsored a "Senate in Exile" session last month for their colleagues from Miami-Dade Community College.

The meeting of Miami-Dade's faculty senates was held at Florida International University after the community college's president locked the offices of the faculty senate and confiscated its files.

The president's actions followed an election where 70 percent of Miami Dade's faculty voted to unionize.

UFF has called on Miami-Dade trustees to reinstate the senate and respect the faculty decision to unionize.

Campus Activities

A U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that state colleges and universities cannot be sued for age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, in Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents, said that states, including public colleges and universities, are immune from age discrimination lawsuits under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution.

The court's 2-1 decision conflicts with at least four other circuit court rulings on the issue. NEA plans to file a petition asking the entire 11th Circuit court to overturn the three-judge panel decision.

The Texas Faculty Association has filed a grievance charging Texas Tech with harassment of a professor who spearheaded opposition to university plans to build a golf course and luxury housing on native short grass rangeland. The Board of Regents had to alter its plan and preserve the rangeland.

TFA charges that Texas Tech used an audit to harass the professor and ruin her career.

Contracts

The South Dakota Supreme Court has ordered the state's Board of Regents to suspend an attempt to impose faculty salaries unilaterally.

The court said a salary plan for the six public universities that allows the Board of Regents to determine which faculty members should receive salary increases and how much each should receive may violate the state's collective bargaining law.

The court action resulted from a suit filed by the Council on Higher Education, an NEA affiliate that represents faculty members at state institutions.

In the lawsuit, the Council charged that state lawmakers violated the law by attaching the anti-bargaining provision to the annual state appropriations bill. A hearing on the issue will be held June 3.

A factfinder has told a Kansas community college that its attempt to remove binding arbitration from the faculty contract is unreasonable.

The Association at Labette Community College will meet once more with the college to try to reach agreement.

Noted the factfinder: "Widespread use of binding arbitration over the years to resolve disputes speaks to its ability to perform well."

Labette has had one grievance go to arbitration in the last 30 years.

Certificated Hourly Instructors, an NEA affiliate for part-time instructors at Long Beach City College, has a new contract.

Two years of bargaining have produced a 7.12 percent salary increase, improvements in seniority, and college E-mail addresses for part-timers. Paid office hours are next on the Association agenda when negotiations resume.

Also in California, a new contract and a new president at the College of the Sequoias are ushering in a new era of constructive contract bargaining, note Faculty Association spokespersons.