Posts tagged faculty
Rutgers Unions Sued Over Strike; Case Seeks National Impact
March 19, 2024 // The student’s lawyers are asking a judge to let the suit become a class action case that could pit 67,000 Rutgers students against the unions. The lawyers estimate the total damages at $150 million, and say they want the lawsuit to have national impact. “This case is simple and straightforward: 67,000 students were denied a week of the education they paid for because the unions chose to undertake a knowingly illegal strike,”
Ohio University officials won’t yet commit to remaining neutral on efforts to form a faculty union
March 15, 2024 // In his reply, the university’s senior associate general counsel, Michael Courtney, wrote that the university was not given enough information and was not provided with enough time to evaluate the requests. “In order to appropriately ensure all voices of the University faculty employees are heard, it is imperative for University leadership to seek and require proof of majority support,” Courtney wrote. In the meantime, Courtney wrote, “Ohio University will pledge that it will comply with regulations” in state law that govern the unionizing process. UAOU sent out a statement to members the day after Courtney’s letter was sent, in which the organization noted that while the university did not agree to UAOU’s requests, it did agree to follow the law.
CSU faculty union approves contract with university that would raise salaries
February 20, 2024 // “We believe that accepting this deal leaves our economic and social-justice issues inadequately addressed, lets CSU off the hook with no systemic change, and fails to protect our students’ right to an accessible, affordable, high-quality education,” the Vote Down website says. “I felt that we were only just getting started in our power,” said Robin Dodds, a professor at California State L.A. who is involved with a campaign on her campus to vote no on the agreement. “I would prefer to go back to the bargaining table and continue to do better for the union.”
Cal State faculty start strike at largest US public university system
January 22, 2024 // “I have no interest in a strike. We are ready and willing to come back to the bargaining table with the California Faculty Association,” she said. “But we must work within our financial realities.” In contract negotiations earlier this month, the university agreed to 5 percent raises, which the union deemed inadequate. The university reached a labor agreement with its Teamsters union local over the weekend, which also prepared to strike. The strike follows a similar graduate student walkout at the University of California system in December 2022, which resulted in significant wage increases after 40 days of striking.
CSU and Teamsters gear up for strike
December 25, 2023 // One of the demands is to distribute salaries fairly. Loren Cannon is a faculty lecturer in the Philosophy department of Cal Poly and is on the statewide bargaining team for CFA. Cannon says, “why is it that we’ve got 23 presidents of relatively small universities that are making as much as the president of the United States? Very high paid administrators and management and we need that money to go towards education.” Cannon is a member of the philosophy department at Cal Poly Humboldt. he explains how the average CSU president makes seven times the salary of the average full-time faculty member.
CFA votes to approve a union strike
November 2, 2023 // CFA-SLO Political Action Chair and History Professor Cameron Jones said the union is preparing for a strike now in the event that all negotiations fall through. While 95% of CFA members voted to go on strike, the union cannot legally strike unless bargaining fails, according to Jones. Currently, the CFA and CSU are in fact-finding, the second to last stage of bargaining.
First Faculty Unions Form at Two Maryland Community Colleges
September 7, 2023 // Before passage of the 2021 collective bargaining law, some employee groups were already organized at the Community College of Baltimore County, Montgomery College, and Prince George’s Community College. There are additional faculty organizing efforts by AFT-Maryland underway now at the Community College of Baltimore County and Prince George’s Community College.
Full-time FCC faculty says union would address campus culture, contracts
August 24, 2023 // According to Trigger, the full-time faculty members at FCC are hoping to address several issues in their first union-negotiated contract. Through collective bargaining, the faculty hopes to gain better health coverage, guaranteed personal days and higher salaries. Last year, the college's board of trustees voted to increase employee wages by at least 2% after a compensation study found substantial variation between the minimum and maximum pay for the same roles. The same study also found that most FCC employees fall at the bottom end of the pay scale. In addition to advocating for fair contracts, the union will also focus on improving the relationship between FCC faculty and the school's administration.
Part-time faculty at The School of Jazz ratify new union contract
May 22, 2023 // The union representing part-time faculty at The School of Jazz secured a new contract with a significant pay boost for adjunct professors on May 5, roughly six months after their part-time faculty counterparts at other New School colleges launched a 25-day-long strike for their own fair contract. Represented by the AFM Local 802 union, the bargaining committee for part-time faculty at The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music voted unanimously to ratify a new, six-year contract with The New School. Their new contract includes a 24% increase to the union’s base pay rate, administrative fees for work done outside of the classroom, and a 16% and 20% raise over the life of the contract for those who earn the union’s base rate and those who earn above it, respectively.