Academic values, decency, and opportunity
A faculty union in the U.S. is different from most other unions in a variety of ways. First, except for a very few situations, faculty unions represent faculty at public colleges and universities, not private. In that regard, faculty unions are like K-12 teachers unions (with whom a number of faculty unions are fellow affiliates of state and national entities) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
But faculty unions also operate at institutions that have a commitment to academic values in widely varying and changing circumstances. Yes, K-12 schools operate in a variety of circumstances, but higher education is even more varied than K-12 in resources, mission, and the attitude of institutional officers. Yet we all lay claim to some core academic principles about the freedom to inquire and write, the integrity of our work, and the opportunities we provide students. The job of a faculty union in the U.S. has typically involved both “bread and butter” issues and also issues unique to higher education. I think of them in three groups:
Academic values. We’re in this job to teach and explore, and while the threats to academic freedom are not as serious as in some decades in the last century, they pop up all too frequently for my comfort. Some recent examples from Florida: Rep. Dennis Baxley’s bill in the 2005 legislature that would have given students the right to sue when they didn’t like what faculty said or the 2006 law that forbids universities from handling any money (not just state funding) that would support research of faculty and graduate students in countries declared terrorist countries. (The United Faculty of Florida was the most visible opponent of the Baxley bill and is fighting the 2006 law.) A faculty union protects academic freedom and other core values, or it loses its soul.
Decency. Faculty do not work comfortably at an institution that treats people in a callous way. When I hear colleagues talk about the need for domestic-partner benefits or the ability to transfer tuition waivers to spouses and dependents, I don’t just hear those who have domestic partners or those who would use transferable tuition waivers. Faculty who are married or single argue for domestic-partner benefits because it’s the right thing to do. Faculty who wouldn’t use transferable tuition waivers want the university to offer them because it’s the right thing to do. I have been at USF for 11 years, far under the threshold needed to benefit from compression/inversion adjustments,* but I support them because we don’t leave people who have worked longest for the university in the worst circumstances. When I first arrived at USF in 1996, there was one colleague who had been in my college for years and yet was paid so little that he could not afford to retire. And if you don’t believe treating people decently matters to a university, try to recruit someone by telling them that the pay is great but the employer treats people like dirt or that morale is sinking through the floor. All things being equal, we’d like to be at a place that we’re proud of. A faculty union fights for decency, or it loses its heart.
Opportunity. Faculty want to know that there are reasonable and fair opportunities for advancement and recognition. The chapter negotiated with the administration to create a promotion track for instructors because both recognized that full-time employees who work in the academic trenches and take an enormous load off tenured and tenure-track faculty need to be recognized and rewarded for performing well in the long term. A different guarantee of opportunity is in non-discrimination policies and contract language. We want to know that our race, sex, age, sexual orientation, political affiliation, etc., will not affect our career. That commitment to open opportunities was behind the United Faculty of Florida’s long-term push for the inclusion of sexual orientation in the old statewide collective bargaining agreement and the USF faculty senate and the local union chapter’s push for its inclusion in local policies and in the local contract. The exact form of opportunity is probably the most contentious issue at a place such as USF, with ambitious faculty and institutional officers. But I don’t think the principle is in doubt; faculty and professional employees need growth opportunities in a variety of ways, for themselves and for USF. A faculty union advances opportunity, or it loses its brain.
* Compression and inversion refer to the payment of long-time faculty less than more recent hires because new hires are paid close to market while salaries lag for faculty who have stayed at any institution. The longer you stay, the more your pay lags. Compression is if you make just a little more than the person in a lower rank. Your pay is inverted when your pay is less than faculty in a lower rank.
