Organizing

Campus Activities

Contracts

Organizing

More than 200 Wisconsin community and union leaders turned out June 24 to support part-time faculty at the Waukesha County Technical College.

Faculty members and professional employees of the University of New Mexico have the right to form unions
and bargain collectively, according to a recent ruling by the state Supreme Court.

The decision invalidated a section of the university's labor-relations policy that had barred professors and professional and technical employees from organizing unions.

The university's 4,000 nonfaculty professional and technical employees---librarians, lab technicians, and counselors---have been waiting for this green light to move ahead and pursue collective bargaining representation.

Campus Activities

The California Faculty Association has a new strategy for registering student voters: an in-class, "Get Out the Vote" drive.

The process is quick and efficient---and the nonpartisan effort is aimed at the 50 percent of 18-to-24 year olds eligible to vote who aren't registered. In 1994, the first year of the program, CFA registered 3,000 new voters, four times the usual rate.

An arbitrator in Florida has ruled that the state university system can't destroy the proceedings of the campus merit pay committees.

The arbitrator ordered the state university system to create written guidelines for its committees that would ensure the rights of the union or grievants to inspect relevant documents.

Contracts

Faculty at Southern Illinois University Carbondale have voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first contract.

Faculty will receive an 8 percent across the board increase over two years, plus a 3.5 percent lump sum for the 1997-98 academic year, and a 5 percent salary pool for merit pay increases in the year 2000.

In addition, the new contract gives faculty increased leverage in governance by outlining how faculty participate in formulating departmental operating papers and making changes.

"Now, we need to work harmoniously with the administration and students to improve the status of the university," said Malik.

Contract talks between the Trustees of the California State University and the California Faculty Association have come to a grinding halt.

To date the parties have engaged in 25 bargaining sessions, reaching tentative agreement on 20 articles in the contract. There are still 19 unresolved issues.

Outstanding issues include improving faculty salaries that are 11 percent below comparable institutions, improving benefits for part-timers, and restricting the power of campus presidents to determine faculty pay.

"CFA is prepared to continue this contract fight into the fall," notes CFA President Terry Jones. "We will rally the faculty behind our proposals and convince the chancellor and trustees that the faculty must be respected."