NATIONAL CENTER

for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions

July-August 2022

The July-August 2022 newsletter includes a reminder about the National Center's Call for Proposals for our 50th anniversary conference in April 2023. Abstracts are due no later than September 9.

In the newsletter, we report on recent court and administrative decisions and orders involving Maryland Institute of Art, Ohio State University, the Montana University System, the University of Northern Iowa, the University of Illinois, Chicago, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the University of South Florida, and the University of Washington.

In addition, we announce the newest members of our labor-management Board of Advisors and provide links to recordings and materials from our 2022 annual conference, links to articles from the latest volume of the National Center's Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, and a link to a recording of our March 2022 webinar titled Race, History, and Academic Freedom, A Teach-In.

Call for Proposals

50th National Center Annual Conference

Abstracts Due: September 9, 2022

The National Center invites practitioners and scholars to submit abstracts of proposed panels for our 50th annual conference that will be taking place in April 2023 in New York City.

The theme of the 50th anniversary conference will be Collective Bargaining in Higher Education: Looking Back, Looking Forward, 1973-2023.

We welcome proposals for panels that will examine current topics in collective bargaining and unionization on campus in historical context. Toward that goal and consistent with the conference theme we will be encouraging panels to utilize materials from prior conference proceedings and earlier National Center newsletters to frame their presentations. Below is a list of suggested panel topics.

We also encourage conference proposals from authors of recently published books relevant to higher education collective bargaining and unionization.

Those interested in proposing a panel should upload an abstract by September 9, 2022 to 2023 Abstract Dropbox that includes a title and description along with a list of invited participants including their title, affiliation, and contact information. We anticipate that the conference will be hybrid and request you state whether the panelists would want to participate in-person or virtually.

Questions concerning the call for proposals should be emailed to 2023 National Center Annual Conference.

State of Iowa (Board of Regents) IPERB Case No.102626

On July 20, 2022, the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board (IPERB) issued a decision dismissing a prohibited labor practice complaint filed by UNI-United Faculty and University of Northern Iowa Professor Steve O’Kane against the Iowa Board of Regents, which alleged that O’Kane was unlawfully disciplined for engaging in protected concerted activity.

Specifically, the complaint averred that O'Kane was improperly disciplined for mandating students to wear masks in his biology class due to pandemic-related concerns. Before IPERB, UNI-United Faculty and O'Kane argued that his action constituted a protected concerted activity under Iowa's public sector collective bargaining law because he sought to induce other professors to impose similar classroom mandates.

In response to the complaint, the university argued that O'Kane's mask mandate was unprotected because it was not concerted, it constituted insubordination for violating the university policy prohibiting mask requirements, and it included an alleged threat to students’ grades for those who were non-compliant.

Following an evidentiary hearing, IPERB concluded that O'Kane's action constiuted concerted activity for mutual aid and protection.

The agency found that prior to the imposition of his mask mandate, O'Kane and other faculty union members had discussed pandemic related health concerns, the idea of requiring masks in the classroom as a protest against the university's policy, and other alternative collective means of resistance. Separately, O'Kane spoke with the UNI-United Faculty president about whether other professors were interested in imposing a mask mandate in their classrooms. In addition, UNI-United Faculty filed an OSHA complaint and submitted a petition to the Board of Regents concerning the prohibition against mask mandates.

IPERB also found that after instituting his mask mandate, O'Kane informed other faculty about it and he drafted a Senate resolution urging faculty to manage their classroom to maximize health and safe precautions. Prior to being disciplined, O'Kane informed university administrators that his mask mandate constituted a protest and on his personal blog he made clear that his action was intended to encourage other faculty to do the same.

Based on the evidence, IPERB found that O'Kane's action was aimed at encouraging his colleagues to follow his lead by imposing a mask mandate that would improve workplace health and safety, which is a term and condition of employment.

Concerning the university claim that O'Kane's conduct was unprotected, IPERB rejected the argument that his action lost protected status because he acted insubordinately by violating the university's policy prohibiting mask mandates. The agency noted that the university's argument was "based on a misinterpretation of PERB case law, and if adopted could lead to absurd results." It emphasized that a mere violation of an employer policy, without more, does not constitute abusive behavior leading to the loss of legal protections.

However, IPERB adopted the university's alternative argument that O'Kane's concerted activity was unprotected because he had threatened students’ grades for non-compliance with the mask mandate. The agency stated that:

"O’Kane’s threat to the students’ grades was a reckless action that cannot be condoned as protected activity. O’Kane owed his students a responsibility as their professor to create an encouraging climate. He also owed the students a fair and impartial evaluation. He owed the students these responsibilities not only because of UNI policy, but because

of the nature of his position as a professor. He placed both of these duties at risk when imposing his mask mandate. In implementing his mandate, O’Kane put his students in the middle of the conflict between faculty and management. Since O’Kane told his students they would lose points for failure to comply with his mask mandate, they lost the ability to choose to wear a mask even though all other authority figures in the Regents’ system gave students that choice."

Based on the IPERB's conclusion that O'Kane acted in an inappropriate manner toward his students, it found that O’Kane's concerted acitivty was unprotected under Iowa's public sector collective bargaining law. Therefore, it dismiseed the complaint filed by UNI-United Faculty and O'Kane finding that they had failed to establish that the university had engaged in a prohibited labor practice by disciplining O'Kane.

Icahn School of Medicine: UAW Certified to Represent Post-Docs Unit

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NLRB Case No: 02-RC-295559

On July 5, 2022, the NLRB certified the Sinai Postdoctoral Organizing Committee-UAW as the exclusive representative for a bargaining unit of 515 postdoctoral fellows at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai medical center in New York. The certification was issued following an election in which the postdoctoral fellows voted 354-17 in favor of union representation.

The following is the newly certified unit:

Included: All Postdoctoral Fellows employed by the Employer.

Excluded: All other employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.

University of Illinois, Chicago: Postdocs Added to Existing FT NTT Unit

Board of Trustees University of Illinois, IELRB Case No. 2022-RS-0013-C

On July 20, 2022, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (IELRB) issued an opinion and order denying exceptions filed by the University of Illinois challenging an Administrative Law Judge's Recommended Decision and Order that the bargaining unit sought in representation petition filed by UIC United Faculty Local 6456, IFT-AFT, AAUP, AFL-CIO was appropriate under Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act 115 ILCS 5/1, et seq. (IELRA).

Specifically, IELRB concluded that the union's petition to add 29 post-doctoral research associates to its pre-existing full-time non-tenure track faculty bargaining unit of approximately 648 employees would create an appropriate unit for purposes of collective bargaining because there was a community of interest between the post-doctoral research associates and the employees in the existing unit. The agency emphasized that IELRA did not require the application of the most appropriate bargaining unit standard.

Univ. of South Florida: Release of Dues Paying Member List is Not a ULP

University of South Florida, FPERC Case No. CA-2022-008

United Faculty of Florida (Karlens), FPERC Case No. CB-2022-002

On June 30, 2002, Florida Public Employees Relations Commission (FPERC) Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Leon Melnicoff issued a recommended decision and order dismissing an unfair labor practice charge filed by United Faculty of Florida (UFF) against the University of South Florida. The UFF charge alleged that university engaged in an unfair labor practice when it released, in response to a public records access request by a former union member, a list of employees who had dues deducted from their paychecks during a three-month period in 2021.

While the ALJ recognized that the university's document release might have impacted constitutionally protected rights of privacy and free association, he ruled that because the university's action was consistent with Florida's Public Records Law, the document release did not constitute an unfair labor practice. It is likely that UFF will be appealing the ALJ's recommended decision to FPERC.

In a related case, FPERC issued a final agency decision on July 13, 2022 affirming the dismissal of a charge filed by the same former union member alleging that UFF had engaged in an unfair labor practice when it refused his demand for a list of union members for the purpose of running for union office. FPERC concluded that the charging party had failed to allege sufficient facts to demonstrate that UFF engaged in an unfair labor practice and the agency reaffirmed its long-standing precedent that absent a demonstrated unlawful purpose, the agency will not get involved in internal union matters.

For legal historical context concerning challenges to demands for labor union and civil rights organization membership lists see: Flaxer v. United States, 358 U.S.147 (1958); NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449 (1958); Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, 372 U.S. 539 (1963).

University of Washington: Social Workers Added to SEIU Bargaining Unit

University of Washington: WPERC Case No. 135139-E-22

On July 20th, 2022. the Washington Public Employment Relations Commission issued a certification, following a card check, that accreted the titles of Social Worker I and II to a bargaining unit represented by SEIU Local 925.

The existing bargaining unit represented by SEIU Local 925 was modified as follows:

All full-time and regular part-time nonsupervisory laboratory technical employees employed by the University of Washington in hospitals and clinics operated by the University of Washington, including the Occupational Therapists I, II, and III; Dietitians I and II; and Social Workers I and II employed by the University of Washington in hospitals and clinics operated by the University of Washington at the University of Washington Medical Center; excluding confidential employees, supervisors, internal auditors, and all other employees.

The National Center Welcomes New Members to the Board of Advisors

With the beginning of the new academic year, we are pleased to announce the newest members of the National Center's labor-management Board of Advisors: Candi Churchill, Jenny Ho, Alissa G. Karl, Ken Mash, and Chris Sinclair. Their bios are set forth below.

We thank the following former labor-side Board members for their contributions to the National Center's programming and activities: UUP President Fred Kowal, former APSCUF President Jaimie Martin, AFSCME's Chris Fox, AAUP's Christopher Simeone, and United Academics' David Cecil.

Candi Churchill, Executive Director, United Faculty of Florida-NEA-AFT. Candi started out with UFF as a local leader with Graduate Assistants United (the UF chapter) in 2000 as a UFF Senator, Steward for Sociology and Chair of the Health Insurance campaign. She began working professionally for UFF in 2002 when all 11 university faculty chapters were threatened with decertification by the Jeb administration’s devolution of the State University System. That campaign yielded over 70% support from faculty at all the universities and two re-certification elections at UWF and FSU (which both yielded over 94% yes votes). From 2006-2021, she was a Service Unit Director working with chapters to strengthen capacity and grow membership, as well as providing trainings, handling arbitrations and impasse, and supporting members facing crises. She enjoys time hiking in the mountains, swimming in North Florida’s beautiful springs, playing board games, and organizing in movements for women’s liberation and building the voice and power of workers.

Jenny Ho is a mother of three and the Assistant Director of Research and Collective Bargaining for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Jenny has over a decade of experience in the labor movement. She has previously served as the Director of Advocacy for the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), a Labor Economist for AFSCME International, a strategic researcher for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), and a community organizer for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Jenny has a master's in Public Administration from Cornell University, in which she completed her graduate research on organizing Asian American workers.

Alissa G. Karl, Vice President for Academics, United University Professions. Karl of Rochester, NY is an associate professor of English at SUNY Brockport and took office as UUP’s Statewide Vice President for Academics (VPA) in August 2021. Before she became VPA, Karl was Brockport Chapter President (2019-21) and a member of UUP’s Statewide Executive Board (2020-21). A native of Sacramento, California, Karl was raised in a public employee union household. A first-generation college student from a working-class family, she has experienced firsthand how the public sector and organized labor are essential for all people to lead dignified lives. Karl’s path as a scholar and teacher has always included labor activism within higher ed. She became involved in the labor movement in 1999, when she joined the organizing committee for teaching and research assistants at the University of Washington—a union drive that successfully established United Auto Workers Local 4121. During that yearslong fight for union recognition and a contract, she also worked on various organizing campaigns around the country with the UAW. Karl began her career at SUNY in 2007 as an assistant professor in Brockport’s English Department and was promoted to associate professor in 2014. As she was earning tenure and promotion, Karl confronted the struggles that SUNY workers face with inadequate family and parental leave provisions on our campuses–an area in which UUP has since made great strides through the bargaining process. Karl is a specialist in modern and contemporary Anglophone literature; most recently, her work has focused on labor politics and economic imaginaries in contemporary literature and culture. She is author of Modernism and the Marketplace: Literary Culture and Consumer Capitalism in Rhys, Woolf, Stein and Nella Larsen (Routledge, 2009) and co-editor of the collections Neoliberalism and the Novel (Routledge, 2015) and Rereading Empathy (Bloomsbury, 2022). Her articles and book chapters have appeared in a variety of academic and public-facing venues. Karl holds a BA in English from George Washington University (1998), an MA in English from the University of Manchester (UK, 1999), and a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Washington at Seattle (2005).

Kenneth M. Mash is the President of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF), which represents approximately 5500 faculty and coaches at the 14 universities comprising Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education. In addition to serving as president, Ken previously served as vice president and chair of the faculty statewide meet & discuss team. He has also served on faculty negotiations teams and the negotiations team for coaches. He is on leave from his position as professor at East Stroudsburg University's (ESU) Political Science Department. He holds a B.A. from Queens College-CUNY and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University.

Chris Sinclair is an associate professor of Mathematics at the University of Oregon and the Secretary/Treasurer of the American Association of University Professors. He was the president of the United Academics of the University of Oregon until 2021 and held several other positions on the executive board. He was previously the president of the University of Oregon Senate. A product of public education, his undergraduate degree is from the University of Arizona and his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. Before Oregon, he had postdocs at the University of British Columbia and the University of Colorado.

Video Recordings and Materials from National Center 2022 Conference

The National Center's 2022 annual conference on April 11-13, 2022 was a major success. We thank all the panelists, moderators, and attendees for their participation.

We are grateful to TIAA, SEIU, AAUP, AFT, NEA and NCHE for sponsoring the conference, to the organizations, law firms, and businesses that purchased conference program advertisements, and to the individuals who made donations.

Below are links to video recordings of conference presentations along with links to panel descriptions, panelists bios, and reading material. Click here for the full conference program.

Welcoming Remarks from Jennifer J. Raab, President, Hunter College, CUNY, Theodore H. Curry, Professor of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Michigan State University, Christopher Simeone, Director, Department of Organizing and Services, AAUP, and William A. Herbert, Executive Director, National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Hunter College, CUNY.

Keynote Presentation by Montserrat Garibay, Senior Advisor for Labor Relations, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education in conversation with Kathleen Mulligan, Director of the National Labor Leadership Initiative, Cornell University, ILR School. Panelists Bios

Panel: The Future of Higher Education with Arthur Levine, The Great Upheaval: Higher Education's Past, Present, and Uncertain Future, Ann Kirschner, University Professor, City University of New York, Discussant, Adrianna Kezar, Endowed Professor and Dean's Professor of Leadership, USC, Director, Pullias Center, and Director, Delphi Project, Discussant, and Daniel Greenstein, Chancellor, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Panel: Reassessing and Reexamining the History of Higher Education with Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt, Cristina Viviana Groeger, The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston , Davarian Baldwin, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities, and Ellen Schrecker, The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s, and Suzanne Kahn, Managing Director of Research and Policy, Roosevelt Institute, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios. At our request, the panelists prepared the following bibliography for further study of the issues.

Panel: Contract Negotiations under COVID and Beyond with Margaret E. Winters, former Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Wayne State University, Ricardo Villarosa, Wayne State University AAUP-AFT, Dominick Fanelli, Associate Director Labor Relations, University of Michigan, Kirsten Herold, President, Lecturers' Employee Organization, AFT Local 6244, and Homer C. La Rue, Labor Arbitrator, Mediator, and Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: COVID and Higher Education: The Role of Unions and Arbitration Regarding Vaccine Mandates with Richard Bales, Professor of Law, Pettit College of Law, Ohio Northern University, Eve Weinbaum, Co-President, Massachusetts Society of Professors, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Michael Eagen, Associate Provost for Academic Personnel, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Charles Toombs, President, California Faculty Association, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Panel: Pandemic Organizing and Bargaining Lessons in Higher Education with Larry Savage, Chair, Department of Labour Studies, Brock University and Lauren Byers, United Faculty of Florida, Unit Service Director, Organizing Specialist, Barry Miller, Senior Policy Advisor on Labour Relations, York University, Discussant and Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Lessons Learned: Organizing and Collective Bargaining by Graduate Assistants During the Pandemic with Jacob A. Bennett, MFA, PhD, University of New Hampshire, Ben Serber, Higher Ed Organizer, North Dakota United and Past President, FSU Graduate Assistants United, Amy L. Levant, Assistant Director of Labor and Employee Relations, University of Illinois, Chicago, and Joseph van der Naald, Graduate Student Researcher, Program in Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Panel: Limiting the Use of Student Evaluations in Contracts: Challenges in Vision and Enforcement with Steven Newman, former President, Temple Association of University Professionals, Temple University, Ian Sakinofsky, Professor of HR Management, Ryerson University, Laura Murphy, Dutchess United Educators, Alexandra Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs, University of Michigan, and Timothy S. Taylor, Arbitrator, Scheinman Arbitration and Mediation Services, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Federal Funding, Inequality, and Higher Education: Politics and Policy-Making with Adam Harris, staff writer at the Atlantic, National Fellow at New America, and author, The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal — and How to Set Them Right, Rebecca S. Natow, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy, Hofstra University and author, Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education: Politics and Policymaking in the Postsecondary Sector, and Sosanya Jones, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Howard University, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Becoming JEDI: Labor-Management Strategy to Challenge Racism on Campus and Stem Community College Enrollment Decline with Courtney Brewer, Professor of Psychology, Executive Vice President, Faculty Association Suffolk Community College, Christina Vargas, Chief Diversity Officer and Title IX Coordinator, Suffolk County Community College, board member, ERASE Racism NY, Patty Munsch, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs, Suffolk County Community College, Jennifer Browne, Associate Dean for Curriculum Development, Suffolk County Community College, Lauren Liburd, Specialist, SCCC Foundation, Co-Chair Achieving the Dream Committee, and Cynthia Eaton, Professor of English, Secretary, Faculty Association Suffolk Community College, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Collective Bargaining and Shared Governance: Findings from the 2021 AAUP Shared Governance Survey with Lynn Pasquerella, President, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Timothy Reese Cain, Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Georgia, Hans-Joerg Tiede, Director of Research, American Association of University Professors, and Michael Loconto, Arbitrator and Mediator, Loconto ADR, Boston, MA, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Achieving Pay Parity for Part-Time Faculty in Community Colleges with

Sandra Weese, Organizing Director, California Federation of Teachers, Ron McKinley, Vice Chancellor of Human Resources and Employee Relations, Peralta Community College District, Dyana Delfin-Polk, Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees, and Jennifer Shanoski, President, Peralta Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 1603, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: An Update from NLRB and Public Sector Labor Relations Agencies on Higher Education Issues with Mark Gaston Pearce, Executive Director, Workers’ Rights Institute, Georgetown University Law School, and former National Labor Relations Board Chairman, J. Felix De La Torre, General Counsel, California Public Employment Relations Board, Ellen Maureen Strizak, General Counsel, Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, and Jennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Faculty Unionization and Collective Bargaining in the Philippines: Similarities and Differences with Benjamin Velasco, Assistant Professor, University of the Philippines, School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Rene Luis Tadle, Associate Professor, Philosophy, University of Santo Tomas and Lead Convenor, Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines, Gerardo L. Blanco Associate Professor, Higher Education, Academic Director, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, Shannon Lederer, Director of Immigration Policy, AFL-CIO, and Ashwini Sukthankar, Secretary/Treasurer, International Commission for Labor Rights. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Panel: Higher Education Legal Update with Henry Morris, Jr., Partner, Arent Fox LLP, Monica Barrett, Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, Angela Thompson, CWA Special Counsel for Strategic Initiatives, and Aaron Nisenson, Senior Legal Counsel, AAUP, Panelist and Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, Volume 13

The National Center is pleased to announce publication of the latest volume of the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy on the theme of Collective Bargaining in the Pandemic.

During our 2022 annual conference the Journal's co-editors, Jeffrey Cross and Gary Rhoades, made an announcement about the new volume.

Op-Ed.

Pandemic Responses: What They Reveal About Crisis Management, Decision-Making, and Shared Governance by Daniel J. Julius

Article

Retrenchment Clauses and the Problem of Force Majeure: Evidence from AAUP Chapter Collective Bargaining Agreements in Ohi o by Dominic Wells and Trey Peters

Practitioner Perspective

Asymmetries in the Bargaining Process by Margaret E. Winters

The Journal is an open access, peer-reviewed, online periodical, the purpose of which is to advance research and scholarly thought related to academic collective bargaining and to make relevant and pragmatic peer-reviewed research readily accessible to practitioners and to scholars in the field.

We encourage scholars and practitioners in the fields of collective bargaining, labor relations, and labor history to submit articles for potential publication in future volumes.

The Journal is supported, in part, by a generous contribution from TIAA and is hosted by the institutional repository of Eastern Illinois University.

Webinar on Race, History, and Academic Freedom, A Teach-in

On March 2, 2022, the National Center hosted a webinar titled Race, History, and Academic Freedom, A Teach-in. The goal of the webinar was to educate those working and studying on campuses throughout the country about the current attacks on the teaching and learning about race in American history.

Click here for the link of the recorded event.

Click here for the webinar reading materials.

The panelists were: