Posts tagged University
Opinion: There is no U in team. Unions are bad for student athletes
March 26, 2024 // The reason is simple. When student athletes unionize, they automatically spike costs for their college or university. Under federal law, the athletes themselves would become employees of the college, making them eligible for a slew of benefits while increasing administrative costs. The collective bargaining process adds money, too. As the price tag rises, colleges will look to cut expenses, which may include the most money-losing athletic programs. That often includes Olympic sports, such as track and swimming. Some schools are already shutting down programs, and as more athletes unionize, more closures will surely follow.
Opinion: Is The American Labor Movement Ready For Gen Z?
February 12, 2024 // It’s fair to ask what any of this has to do with unions’ supposed goal of bargaining for better wages and conditions for workers. The data is regrettably clear: with this trend towards increased activism, representation for actual union members has suffered. Some of the nation’s largest labor unions routinely spend as much or more on political activities than they do on representing their existing members. For example, in 2022 the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), representing over 1.8 million workers, spent $63.5 million on political activities and lobbying, which is more than double what it spent representing its membership. The American Federation of Teachers spent $46.9 million supporting Left-wing politics in 2023, while the National Education Association spent less on member representation than it did on political causes. Organized labor is already diverting too much time and money away from the well-being of workers and toward unrelated political agendas. As more members of Gen Z join unions and gain leadership positions, we can only expect this trend to increase.
WWU student workers aim for ‘wall-to-wall’ union protection
January 16, 2024 // More than 2,000 student employees at Western Washington University will be part of a union if students’ efforts come to fruition. That would constitute “wall-to-wall" union protection, as organizers call it, an effort that reflects broader efforts to unionize across industries in recent years. In Whatcom County, labor actions have been frequent: from Starbucks to REI to PeaceHealth, student employees are part of a larger organizing movement in Bellingham and across the country. It's also part of a movement of students organizing across the state and nationwide: Postdoctoral students at Washington State University have organized, and academic student workers are heading for a strike. Central Washington University students are also organizing, said Sarah Tucker of the Washington State Labor Council.
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.
Emory Ph.D. Student Workers Unionize, Join Organizing Wave
November 29, 2023 // The new union is called SEIU Workers United Southern Region Local 29, and it says it will represent all Ph.D. student workers there. “Over 7 years of effort have finally paid off, and we have joined together to say yes to a union!” the union said on its website. This fall, Duke University became the first private university south of Washington, D.C., to have a certified graduate worker union, according to William A. Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York.
‘Many of us are struggling’: why US universities are facing a wave of strikes
April 24, 2023 // Thousands of workers at universities have gone on strike in 2023 amid new union contract negotiations in demand of pay increases that align with the effect high inflation rates have had on the cost of living. The strikes are a continuation of wave of industrial action in higher education in the US last year. In late 2022, 48,000 graduate workers and post-doctoral researchers went on strike throughout the University of California system, the largest strike in US higher education history. There were 15 academic strikes in the US in 2022, the highest number of strikes in academia in at least 20 years.
Push to unionize at college dorms is growing
March 31, 2023 // Colleges have been a breeding ground for illness and social havoc since the pandemic began, and much of the onus has been placed on RAs, who are appointed to shepherd the well-being of an entire floor of younger students. In the past, that has typically meant hosting events, mediating roommate disputes, and perhaps guiding an overserved first-year safely to bed. For this, RAs are compensated with free or discounted housing and meal plans. But in recent semesters, and especially since schools reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic, those responsibilities have ballooned. RAs who spoke with the Globe describe being deputized as “COVID police” to enforce masking and social distance, and wrangling students whose university — or even high school — experience was stunted by lockdowns and remote learning. Several schools later assigned RAs to longer overnight “on call” shifts and additional check-ins with residents.
‘It’s about damn time’: College workers organize amid nationwide labor unrest
February 8, 2023 // A historic strike at the University of California kicked things off in November. And the six-week standoff among 48,000 campus workers, a broader surge in labor strikes across industries, a depleted pandemic workforce and a friendlier atmosphere in Washington has culminated in a wave of uprisings.+
NYC’s New School tells students to attend class while professors strike
November 17, 2022 // Part-time professors at Manhattan’s New School went on strike on Wednesday — but the progressive university wants students to cross the picket line to keep attending classes while their instructors fight for better wages. Parents were stunned when they received an email from the university on Wednesday that said that despite the professor strike, the school “remains open and instructional activities are ongoing.” The school, which can cost upwards of $60,000 per year, said it’s encouraging students to keep up with their work through an “alternative instructional plan
CALIFORNIA’S GOVERNMENT UNIONS CONTINUE STEADY DECLINE
October 10, 2022 // “This decline is most remarkable because it comes despite that massive hiring boom,” said Jackson Reese, Vice President of California Policy Center and director of CPC’s Janus project. “Every time a worker resigns union membership, her union loses close to $1,000 in dues per year. And, of course, that means $1,000 annually goes into the employee’s pocket.” Reese, who led CPC’s documents review, said his team calculates that the membership losses produced a decline in annual union dues income of just under $337 million. “That’s money the unions no longer have to finance campaigns, engage in political activism or lobby government officials — and that’s a key purpose of our work here,” Reese said.