Collective Organizing for Faculty

Although I am overburdened with grading at the moment, I wanted to post something today. Tony Palmeri has been keeping up on legislation in the Wisconsin Assembly that would give us the right to organize a union.

This is something that is unfortunately necessary, I think, because of the current state of affairs in Wisconsin. We need a strong voice in funding decisions that are being made in Madison. Currently, there is no real advocate for higher education in the state. Besides protecting our own interest, a union would be able to create a loud collective voice to remind our legislators and citizens that the university system here needs to be supported. We have become the whipping boy of the Christianists in Wisconsin and need to figure out a way to organize a defense. A union would help greatly.

I have worked in both unionized and ununionized faculty positions, and the difference was pretty amazing. A faculty union gives us a real voice in governance, not just a forum for complaining and then being ignored (remember our spring petition!)

Note: Please contact me (Palmeri @uwosh.edu) or TAUWP/AFT Staff Representative Kevin Kniffin (kniffin @aft-wisconsin.org or 800-362-7390 x223) for more information about any of these items.

1. United Council of UW Students endorses SB 452
2. Frequently Asked Questions re Coll. Barg. Rights
3. TAUWP/AFT sees shift in UW System Administration

1. United Council of UW Students endorses SB 452

The United Council of UW Students (the statewide assembly of UW student governments) took unanimous action on December 3rd to support collective bargaining rights for UW faculty and academic staff and to endorse Senate Bill 452. United Council's discussions prior to voting included TAUWP officers Bill Biglow (UW-Oshkosh chapter) and Patricia Goldstein (UW-Milwaukee chapter).

A copy of the United Council resolution is included here (and interested individuals can visit United Council online at their website: < www.unitedcouncil.net>):

"Approved December 3, 2005
UNITED COUNCIL OF UW STUDENTS RESOLUTION

“Support of Collective-Bargaining Rights for UW Faculty and Academic Staff”
Whereas, students support the extension of collective-bargaining rights to faculty and academic staff employed throughout the University of Wisconsin (UW) System; and

Whereas, Senate Bill (SB) 452 extends the “right-to-decide” collective bargaining to UW faculty and academic staff; and

Whereas, all four neighboring states­and 29 states across the nation­extend collective bargaining rights to faculty and academic staff employed at two-year and four-year public higher education institutions; and

Whereas, during a one-year period from March 2001 and March 2002, Faculty Senates at 14 of the 15 UW institutions approved resolutions requesting that the Legislature extend collective bargaining rights to UW faculty and academic staff; and

Therefore be it resolved, the United Council of UW Students, representing 140,000 students on 24 UW campuses, supports the passage of SB 452.

Beau Stafford
President
United Council of UW Students

Brian Tanner
Legislative Affairs Director
United Council of UW Students"

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2. Frequently Asked Questions re Coll. Barg. Rights

QUESTION: Does Governor Jim Doyle support bargaining rights for UW faculty and academic staff?

ANSWER: Yes. As he promised as a candidate, Governor Doyle remains committed to making the needed changes so that faculty and academic staff are no longer denied the basic right to decide in favor or against collective bargaining. His main designee -- Director of Office of State Employment Relations Karen Timberlake -- has taken proactive steps in recent months to help advance SB 452.

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QUESTION: Do other states allow bargaining rights for faculty and academic staff on a campus-by-campus basis?

ANSWER: Yes. Even in Wisconsin's neighboring states, each of which permit faculty and professional staff to vote in favor or against collective bargaining, there are many examples. In the University of Illinois system, not only do the faculties at Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield have independent rights, but the law school faculty have a right-to-decide that is independent of others at UIUC.

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3. TAUWP/AFT sees shift in UW System Administration

UW System President Kevin Reilly recently acknowledged in a public radio interview that "there are a good number of states now where faculty and [academic] staff are in Unions and they sit beside, in those states, in the universities, the shared governance functions that those states have." Reilly's statement is a significantly positive--and appropriate--shift away from past UW System Administrations that actively undermined and opposed bills like SB 452.

Among the reasons why Reilly's shift is appropriate:

1. TAUWP/AFT members have been working across the State over the past three years to meet with members of the 17-person, Doyle-appointed Board of Regents to introduce them to the subject of collective bargaining rights for faculty and academic staff. Among the points that we have emphasized in these meetings is the fact that collective bargaining rights are available to faculty and academic staff employed on four-year campuses in 29 states and more than 1,100 campuses across the country and each of Wisconsin's four neighboring states
2. Between March 2001 and March 2002, faculty senates at 14 of the 15 UW institutions approved resolutions requesting that the legislature extend the basic right to decide in favor or against collective bargaining. UW-Madison, as the exception in 2001-02, approved a resolution in May 2005 that endorsed the inclusion of several principles that are each accommodated in SB 452.

Reilly made the statement as part of an interview on December 14th on Joy Cardin's Wisconsin Public Radio program.

More information about the UW Oshkosh TAUWP chapter can be found here: http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/TAUWP/