We encourage institutions, unions, law firms, and individuals to donate to help support the National Center’s research and programming.

June 2024 Newsletter

In this month’s newsletter, we include a link to our Call for Proposals for the 2025 annual conference in New York City along with a solicitation for manuscripts for our Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy. We also introduce two Hunter College undergraduates who will be research interns in the next academic year.

In addition, the newsletter includes a preliminary analysis of the relationship between collective bargaining relationships and decisions by institutions, including the University of the Arts, to close or merge since 2016. We also report on faculty representation elections at Loyola Marymount University, the University of San Diego, New York Film Academy, and Tulane University, and elections involving postdoctoral scholars at the University of Southern California, and undergraduate student employees at Occidental College.

The newsletter also discusses a Connecticut labor relations agency decision finding that course enrollment is a non-mandatory subject of negotiations, an injunction issued by a California state court judge enjoining graduate student employee strikes at the University of California, state legislation to mandate that a human being, rather than artificial intelligence, teach community college classes, and our updates concerning representation efforts by university library staff, interns and residents, and campus security.

Lastly, the newsletter includes photographs and links to video recordings from our 2024 annual conference.

Call for Proposals for 2025 National Center Annual Conference

The National Center has issued a Call for Proposals for our 52nd annual conference that will take place on March 23-25, 2025 in New York City. The theme of next year's conference will be New Developments and Training in Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.

We welcome proposals for diverse panels or interactive workshops that include both labor and administrator representatives to discuss subjects relevant to higher education and the professions including unionization, collective bargaining, and labor relations. We strongly encourage proposals that include newer and diverse scholars, administrators, and labor representatives. Proposals are due on or before August 30, 2024.

Submit Articles to the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

The Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy is a publication of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions. It is an open-access, peer-reviewed, online periodical advancing research and scholarly thought related to collective bargaining in higher education, and making relevant and pragmatic peer-reviewed research readily accessible.

The Journal is now accepting submissions for Volume 16 to be published in March 2025. Our authors customarily include college and university faculty and administrators, scholars, graduate students, union activists and leaders, and others interested in collective bargaining in higher education.

Our Journal editors are particularly interested in submissions for Volume 16 dealing with the following subjects: artificial intelligence and collective bargaining; social justice issues as negotiable subjects; Title IX compliance in the context of legal challenges; graduate and undergraduate student unionization and bargaining; ombudsperson offices co-existing or conflicting with academic labor; and other important issues in today’s fast-changing and growing campus collective bargaining world.

Please see the Aims & Scope page for more information or contact the editors with any questions on possible submissions.

Journal editors are Gary Rhoades, University of Arizona, Karen Stubaus, National Center Visiting Scholar and former Vice President for Academic Affairs at Rutgers University, and Jacob Apkarian, York College, City University of New York. It is supported in part by a generous contribution from TIAA and is hosted by the institutional repository of Eastern Illinois University, The Keep, a service of EIU's Booth Library.

Volume 15 of the Journal, which was published earlier this year, was titled "Learning From and Building on Collective Bargaining's Foundations and Experience." Below are links to articles that appeared in that volume:

Op-Ed

Collective Bargaining Among Undergraduate Students by Daniel J. Julius and Nicholas DiGiovanni Jr.

Articles

The Persistence of Separate and Unequal: Debunking Myths of the Market in Bargaining for Faculty Gender Salary Equity by Johanna E. Foster and Jen McGovern

The Role of the Chief Negotiator in Academic Collective Bargaining by Nicholas DiGiovanni Jr.

The 50 Year History of Collective Bargaining at Hofstra University by Herman A. Berliner, Peter C. Daniel, Bernard J. Firestone, Estelle S. Gellman, Elizabeth J. Ploran, and Liora P. Schmelkin

Analyzing the Upward Trend in Academic Unionization: Drivers and Influences

by Andrea Clemons

Practitioner Perspectives

TAUP's 50-Year Collective Bargaining Story by Arthur Hochner

Some Thoughts of Faculty Strikes by Margaret E. Winters and William Connellan

National Center Welcomes Hunter Undergraduate Research Assistants

The National Center is thrilled to announce that two outstanding Hunter College undergraduates will be research assistants with us in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Daniel Cronin is a rising senior at Hunter College, where he is pursuing a degree in History, Political Science, and Classical Studies. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Hunter College Senate, the External Affairs Commissioner of the Undergraduate Student Government, and a first-year peer mentor.

Daniel has previously worked with several organizations, including the New York City Council, the CUNY College Completion Innovation Fund, and the Roosevelt Institute. This summer, he is interning with the Economic Security Project in Washington, D.C. Given his interests in labor and educational policy, Daniel is extremely excited to work with the National Center and help contribute to its important research.

After graduation, Daniel plans to explore careers in public service and academia. In his free time, Daniel enjoys playing soccer, watching the New York Mets, and pretending to be a food critic.

Jenna Salem is a dedicated Hunter College Political Science major with a focus on Pre-Law and in the pursuit of certificates in Human Rights and Public Policy. Jenna has a strong interest in researching labor issues, particularly in the context of organizing, union representation, and collective bargaining, and the intricacies of the law and governance. She was a volunteer at the National Center's 51st annual national conference.

Jenna is committed to pursuing a career that blends her academic interests with practical applications in the legal field. Outside of her studies, she loves reading and constantly seeking to expand her knowledge on a variety of subjects. Her enthusiasm for learning and drive to make a positive impact through law are key motivators in her academic and professional journey.

Join the Campaign for an Interactive Collective Bargaining Website

Join the National Center's campaign to fund a permanent interactive website that will provide access to the National Center's database of information and contracts concerning all academic collective bargaining relationships listed in our upcoming 2024 Directory of Bargaining Agents and Contracts in Institutions of Higher Education.

The funds from the campaign would help build the website and allow us to employ graduate students to maintain the website, ensure the accessibility of the contracts, and regularly update our database with information such as successor agreements and new collective bargaining relationships.

The features of the interactive website would include the ability of negotiators, representatives, and scholars to:

• search our repository of close to 900 current contracts individually or in a group utilizing a word search function.

• search and display variables in our database by institution, bargaining agent, unit composition, and state and would allow the download of data in different formats so that users would be able to analyze the data using their favorite program.

Lastly, the website would include a data entry portal for users to update the data by adding or correcting any data points.

An interactive website will be of immense value to all institutions of higher education, unions representing faculty, post-doctoral scholars, and graduate assistants, law firms representing institutions and unions, as well as scholars of higher education and labor.

Making the interactive website a reality requires financial support. The creation of an operational website may cost as much as $50,000 with additional annual costs to employ graduate students to maintain and update the website.

We, therefore, encourage higher education institutions, unions, law firms, and others to contribute toward the creation and maintenance of the interactive website, which we hope to put online by the end of 2024.

The following are suggested donation amounts to fund the interactive website:

$10,000

$ 5,000

$ 2,500

$ 1,000

$ 500

Other amounts: $250, $100, $50, or $25.Donate Now

University of the Arts, Collective Bargaining, and its Relationship to Closures and Mergers in Higher Education Since 2016

The abrupt May 31, 2024 announcement by the University of the Arts in Philadelphia of its closure on June 7, 2024 came as a shock to faculty, students, and public officials. 

The university’s statement was made on the same day that Middle States Commission on Higher Education announced it was withdrawing the university’s accreditation because of the failure of the university to comply “with the Commission's procedures, requests for written reports, teach-out plan, or other information” including demonstrating “that it has documented financial resources, funding base, and plans for financial development.”

The sudden events came a few months following the effective date of the first contract between the United Academics of Philadelphia, AFT Local 9608, AFT, AFL-CIO and the university for a bargaining unit of non-tenure track faculty, which was set to expire on June 30, 2026. United Academics of Philadelphia was certified to represent the bargaining unit by the NLRB on March 24, 2022, following an election in which the non-tenure track faculty voted 72-13 in favor of union representation.

Under Article XXVI of the negotiated contract, the university was required to notify the union of a “declaration of a financial exigency as soon as the exigency has been determined” and provide the union with relevant financial information within two weeks including data on student enrollment.

An important issue in collective bargaining is an employer’s financial condition and its ability to pay. At present, it is unclear what representations the university made to the union concerning those issues during negotiations and whether the university provided the union with notice of financial exigency prior to announcing the closure. Some of those issues will likely be explored in the pending unfair labor practice charges that allege the university violated its duty to bargain in good faith.

Based on the timing of the first contract and the university’s closure there is little reason to believe that faculty union representation and collective bargaining were causal factors leading to the closure of the University of the Arts. It is far more likely that enrollment decline and reduced revenue, along with mismanagement, were the causes.

The National Center recently conducted a comparison of our data from the 2012 Directory and the 2020 Supplementary Directory with data collected by Higher Ed Dive, as of June 24, 2024, of public and private institutions that have either closed, merged, or announced future plans to do so, to make a preliminary determination of the correlation between the existence of faculty collective bargaining relationships and closures and mergers since 2016. The National Center supplemented the Higher Ed Dive data with three additional schools that have closed, merged or announced plans since 2016: Baker College, Eastern Gateway Community College, and North Coast College.

Our comparison of the two datasets reveals that only 12.4% (15) of the 121 institutions in 35 states that have closed, merged, or made an announcement since 2016 had a faculty collective bargaining relationship. The data does not reflect institutions that have retrenched by eliminating programs and courses, and terminating faculty and staff.

Importantly, most of the 121 institutions were private non-profits, including a number of religiously-affiliated schools, a sector with the lowest level of faculty union representation.  One of the schools that closed since 2016, Medaille College, made unilateral changes to shared governance in 2020 and then spent resources on litigation to successfully defeat a faculty unionization effort before closing its doors in 2023.

The low level of representation at private institutions stems from case law that excludes tenured and track faculty from the right to unionize and excludes many religiously affiliated institutions from National Labor Relations Board jurisdiction. See, National Labor Relations Board v. Yeshiva University, 444 U.S. 672 (1980); Bethany College, 369 NLRB No. 98 (2020).

Loyola Marymount Univ.: NTT Faculty Vote for SEIU Representation

Loyola Marymount University, NLRB Case No. 31-RC-340487

On June 11, 2024,the NLRB tallied the ballots in a representation case filed by SEIU Local 721 seeking to represent a bargaining unit of 395 full-time and part-time faculty and postdocs at Loyola Marymount University.

The tally demonstrated that the employees at Loyola Marymount University voted 227-29 in favor of SEIU Local 721 representation.

The following is the at-issue faculty bargaining unit at Loyola Marymount University:

Included: All full-time and part-time non-tenure track faculty; including but not limited to those with the title of Faculty, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Instructor, Senior Instructor, Applied Music Instructor, Clinical Assistant Professor, Clinical Associate Professor, Clinical Professor, Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and Affiliated External Faculty; who are employed by Loyola Marymount University and who teach at least one credit-earning class, section, lesson, or lab within the academic unit known as the LMU College of Communication and Fine Arts; All full-time and part-time non-tenure track faculty; including but not limited to those with the title of Faculty, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Instructor, Senior Instructor, Clinical Assistant Professor, Clinical Associate Professor, Clinical Professor, Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Writing Instructor, and Affiliated External Faculty; who are employed by Loyola Marymount University and who teach at least one credit-earning class, section, lesson, or lab within the academic unit known as the LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts; and All full-time and part-time non-tenure track faculty; including but not limited to those with the title of Faculty, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Instructor, Senior Instructor, Clinical Assistant Professor, Clinical Associate Professor, Clinical Professor, and Affiliated External Faculty; who are employed by Loyola Marymount University and who teach at least one credit-earning class, section, lesson, or lab within the academic unit known as the LMU School of Film and Television.

Excluded: All tenured or tenure-track faculty; all Visiting Faculty (Assistant, Associate, and Professor); all phased retiring faculty; all faculty moving into a tenure-track position; all emeritus faculty; terminated faculty or faculty who quit as of April 27, 2024, adjunct professors; all registrars and librarians; all Athletic Department coaches; all graduate students of LMU; all lab assistants, graduate assistants, clinical fellows, teaching assistants, and research assistants; all mentors who do not have teaching responsibilities; the President of LMU, the Provost; all Associate Provosts, Vice Provosts, and Vice Presidents; all Deans, Vice Deans, Associate Deans and Assistant Deans, regardless of their faculty status; all non-faculty-employees; all volunteers; and all managers, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.

University of San Diego: NTT Faculty Vote for SEIU Representation

University of San Diego, NLRB Case No. 21-RC-339512

On June 18, 2024, the NLRB tallied the ballots in a representation election concerning a petition filed by SEIU Local 721 to represent a unit of 324 full-time and part-time non-tenure track faculty at the University of San Diego. 

The tally demonstrated that the non-tenure track faculty voted 169-13 in favor of a representation by SEIU Local 721. Eight faculty members were permitted to vote in the election but their eligibility to be represented in the bargaining unit was not resolved.

The following is a description of the at-issue bargaining unit at the University of San Diego:

Included: All full-time and part-time non-tenure track faculty, including with the title of Lecturer, Lecturer I, Lecturer II, Adjunct Instructor, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Professor of Practice, Visiting Assistant Professor, and Applied Music Instructor, who are employed by the University of San Diego (USD) and who taught at least one credit-earning class, section, lesson, or lab within the academic unit known as the USD College of Arts and Sciences in the 2023 Spring Semester, the 2023 Fall Semester, or the 2024 Spring Semester, including employees who did not work during that period because they were ill, on vacation, or were temporarily laid off.

Excluded: All tenured or tenure-track faculty, other visiting faculty, faculty teaching at an academic unit other than the USD College of Arts and Sciences, emeritus faculty, registrars, librarians, Athletic Department coaches, graduate students of USD, post-doctoral scholars of USD, lab assistants, graduate assistants, clinical fellows, teaching assistants, research assistants, mentors who do not have teaching responsibilities, department chairs regardless of their faculty status, the President of USD, the Provost, Associate Provosts, Vice Provosts, Vice Presidents, and Deans, Vice Deans, Associate Deans, and Assistant Deans regardless of their faculty status, non-faculty-employees, volunteers, office clerical employees, managerial employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.

Tulane University: NTT Faculty Vote for SEIU Representaiton

Tulane University, NLRB Case No. 15-RC-339381

According to a media report, non-tenure track professors of practice, visiting professors, instructors, and lecturers at Tulane University voted 146-29 last week in favor of representation by Workers United-SEIU.

The following is a description of the at-issue bargaining unit at Tulane University:

Included: All Professors of Practice, Visiting Professors, Instructors, and Lecturers employed by Tulane University in the schools of Liberal Arts, Science and Engineering, Architecture, Professional Advancement, and Business.

Excluded: All Deans regardless of rank/status (e.g., Deans, Assistant/Associate Deans, Interim Assistant/Associate Deans, Interim Deans, Senior Associate Deans), Executive Directors, Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty, Adjunct Faculty, Non-Tenure Track Faculty in the schools of Public Health, Medicine, Social Work, and Law, all other employees employed by Tulane University, managers, confidential employees, office clerical employees, guards, and supervisors as defined by the Act.

Employees holding the following titles were permitted to vote in the election but their eligibility to be represented remains unresolved: Academic Directors; Administrative Directors; Area Coordinators; Assistant Directors; Assistant Faculty Directors; Associate Department Chairs; Associate Directors; Associate Program Directors; Coordinators; Curricular Directors; Department Chairs; Directors; Faculty Directors; Program Coordinators; Program Directors; University Senate Committee Chairs; University Senate Officers (e.g., Chair, Vice Chair, etc.); and University Senators.

New York Film Academy: Faculty Vote for UAW Representation

New York Film Academy Ltd., NLRB Case No. 02-RC-340474

On June 18, 2024, the NLRB tallied the ballots in a representation election concerning a petition filed by the Association of Teachers and Staff at NYFA-UAW to represent a unit of 217 faculty, instructors, adjuncts, and librarians working for the New York Film Academy. 

The ballot tally demonstrated that the employees voted 149-3 in favor of representation by the Association of Teachers and Staff at NYFA-UAW.

The following is a description of the new bargaining unit at the New York Film Academy:

Included: All professional employees, including those who work remotely, including faculty, including instructors, and adjuncts, librarians, assistant librarians, student accessibility services/staff therapists, and musical theater accompanists employed by the Employer at its New York, NY campus.

Excluded: All other employees, including the non-professional employees listed in Voting Group B, seasonal employees, confidential employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.

University of Connecticut: Course Enrollment is Non-Mandatory Subject

University of Connecticut, CSBLR Decision No. 5322

On May 20, 2024, the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations (CSBLR) issued a decision determining that a contract proposal by the University of Connecticut Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to reduce course enrollment caps and prohibit the increase of enrollment in any course by more than 10% constituted a non-mandatory subject of bargaining under Connecticut's public sector collective bargaining law.

In reaching its decision, CSBLR rejected AAUP's argument that there was a substantive distinction between restricting course enrollment and restricting class size for purposes of determining the negotiability of the proposal. CSBLR noted that in a 1992 decision it had ruled ruled that a proposal to prohibit increasing class sizes was non-mandatory because it related to academic policy reserved to a higher education institution.

In the present case, CSBLR found that the AAUP proposals was non-mandatory because "the balance tips in favor of the University’s need for unilateral action to serve or preserve an important policy decision committed to its Board of Trustees; namely, advancing the goals of higher education in the state, including increasing enrollment

opportunities in colleges and universities." (citation omitted).

CSBLR concluded that the university's interests in offering degree programs with unique curriculum requirements and ensuring that students have maximum access to key courses to progress to timely graduation outweighed faculty's interests concerning workload. In reaching that conclusion, the agency found that the "impact of larger classes on workload can be reduced by course design and new grading technologies" that are available to "faculty to meet the demand of higher course enrollment."

Lastly, the decision noted that the union can negotiate "workload directly without delving into enrollment figures," noting that the 2021-2025 contract between the parties include procedures for the adoption of departmental workload policies through faculty participation in departmental governance.

University of Southern California: Postdocs Vote for UAW Representation

University of Southern California, NLRB Case No. 31-RC-341893

According to a media report, the NLRB tallied the ballots in a representation election on June 24, 2024 concerning a petition filed by USC Researchers and Fellows United – UAW to represent a bargaining unit of postdoctoral scholars employed by the University of Southern California. According to the report, the postdoctoral scholars voted 200-15 in favor of representation by USC Researchers and Fellows United – UAW

The following is a description of the new postdoctoral scholar bargaining unit at the University of Southern California:

Included: All Postdoctoral Scholars employed by the University of Southern California including Postdoctoral Scholar—Research Associate; Postdoctoral Scholar—Fellowship Trainee; and Postdoctoral Scholar—Teaching Fellow.

Excluded: All Postdoctoral Scholar–Visiting Fellow, and all other employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.

Thirteen other employees were permitted to vote in the election but their eligibility remains unresolved.

California: State Legislation to Prohibit AI Instructors

A bill has passed the California Assembly and Senate that would mandate that a community college instructor of record be a human being who meets minimum qualifications for the position, rather than artificial intelligence.

University of California: State Court Judge Enjoins UAW Strike

The Regents of the University of California v. International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, AFL-CIO, Local Union 4811, Superior Court of the State of California, County of Orange, Case No. 30-2024-01403666-CU-MC-CXC

.On June 7, 2024, California Superior Court Judge Randall J. Sherman issued a temporary restraining order enjoining the UAW and its agents, officers and members from engaging in strike activity in violation of the no-strike provision of the applicable collective bargaining agreements between the University of California and the UAW. The injunction order is related to a pending unfair practice charge filed by the University of California with the California Public Employment Relations Board alleging that that the strikes violate the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act because of the no-strike provision in the collective bargaining agreement for the UAW bargaining units.

The injunction has been criticized as judicial overreach by legal scholar Noah Zatz, Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Last year, a Michigan state court judge denied a similar application by the University of Michigan to enjoin a strike by that university’s graduate student employees.

Occidental College: Student Employees Vote for SEIU Representation

Occidental College, NLRB Case Nos.: 31-RC-338554 and 31-RC-339565

On June 12, 2024, the NLRB tallied the ballots in two separate representation elections concerning petitions filed by SEIU Local 721 seeking to represent undergraduate student employees at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

I. 31-RC-338554

In the first representation case, which involved a unit of 842 undergraduate student employees enrolled in a degree-earning program at Occidental College, the employees voted 365-65 in favor of SEIU Local 721 according to the ballot tally.

The following is a description of that new bargaining unit at Occidental College:

Included: Undergraduate students who are enrolled in a degree-earning program at and who are employed by Occidental College.

Excluded: All student workers performing work in positions/classifications in the following programs, services, or workplaces: The Green Bean; ASOC (Associated Students of Occidental College), including the SusFund, Honor Board, Diversity & Equity Board; FEAST (Food Energy and Sustainability Team); Bengal Bus; Bike Share Program; La Encina Yearbook; Oxy Design Service; Oxy TV; The Student Activity Center; KOXY Radio; The Occidental Student Newspaper; and The Oxy Programming Board. All students performing work in the Human Resources Office. All other employees, confidential employees, guards, managerial employees and supervisors as defined by the Act.

II. 31-RC-339565

In the second representation case, which involved a unit of 242 undergraduate student employees at Occidental College who work at specific college programs, services, or workplaces, the employees voted 123-18 in favor of SEIU Local 721 representation according to the ballot tally.

The following is a description of the second new bargaining unit at Occidental College:

Included: All undergraduate student workers who are enrolled in a degree-earning program at and who are employed by Occidental College in one of the following programs, services, or workplaces: the Green Bean; ASOC (Associated Students of Occidental College) (including the SusFund, the Honor Board, the Diversity & Equity Board); FEAST (Food Energy and Sustainability Team); Bengal Bus; the Bike Share Program; La Encina Yearbook; Oxy Design Service; Oxy TV; the Student Activity Center; KOXY Radio; The Occidental Student Newspaper; and the Oxy Programming Board.

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

University of Pennsylvania: AFSCME Petitions to Represent Library Staff

University of Pennsylvania, NLRB Case No. 04-RC-344879 

On June 21, 2024, AFSCME District Council 47, Local 590 filed a petition with the NLRB seeking to represent a bargaining unit of 118 full-time and regular part-time library staff at the University of Pennsylvania.

The following is the description of the proposed bargaining unit outlined in the petition:

Included: All full-time and regular part-time support staff personnel, nonprofessional employees, and professional employees of the University Libraries and the Archives and Records Center at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Libraries).

Excluded: Employees already represented by other labor organizations and employees who are employed by third party contractors; managerial employees, guards, supervisors, and confidential employees as defined in the Act.

Univ. of Maryland Medical Center: Residents and Fellows Vote for AFT

University of Maryland Medical Center, LLC and Maryland General Hospital, Inc. d/b/a University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus, Joint Petitioners, NLRB Case No. 05-RM-342035

On June 13, 2024, the NLRB tallied the ballots in an election on a petition filed the University of Maryland Medical Center concerning whether the University of Maryland Resident and Fellow Alliance, AFT-Maryland, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO should be certified to represent a bargaining unit of 947 full-time residents and fellows employed at the medical center. 

The tally demonstrated that the residents and fellows voted 628-19 in favor of representation by the University of Maryland Resident and Fellow Alliance, AFT-Maryland, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO

The following is a description of the new bargaining unit at the University of Maryland Medical Center:

Included: All full-time residents and fellows employed by the University of Maryland Medical Center, LLC at 22 South Greene Street, Baltimore, Maryland or Maryland General Hospital, Inc. d/b/a University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus, at 827 Linden Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland.

Excluded: All other employees, non-professional employees, managerial employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.

Detroit Education & Research: Interns and Residents

Vote for AFT Representation

Detroit Education & Research, NLRB Case No. 07-RC-316218

On June 4, 2024, the NLRB tallied the ballots in a representation election concerning a petition filed by the Alliance of Resident Physicians, AFT-Michigan, AFT, AFL- CIO seeking to represent a unit of 956 full-time and regular part-time interns, resident physicians, and medical fellows employed by Detroit Education and Research. The tally demonstrated that the employees voted 508-8 in favor of representation by Alliance of Resident Physicians, AFT-Michigan, AFT, AFL- CIO.

The following is a description of the at-issue bargaining unit:

Included: All full-time and regular part-time interns, resident physicians, and medical fellows employed by the Employer.

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

Northwestern University: Full-Time Campus Police Seek to Unionize

Northwestern University, NLRB Case No. 13-RC-344486

On June 17, 2024, the Illinois Council of Police filed a petition seeking to represent a unit of 17 full-time police officers at Northwestern University.

The following is a description of the proposed police officer bargaining unit at Northwestern University:

Included: All full-time Police Officers

Excluded: All other employees of the Employer covered under the Act.

Fairfield University: Campus Guards Seek to Unionize

Fairfield University, NLRB Case. No 01-RC-344345

On June 13, 2024, the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America filed a petition seeking to represent a unit of 20 employees performing guard duties at Fairfield University.

The following is a description of the bargaining unit sought in the petition:

Included: All employees performing guards duties as defines in Section 9(b)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act, employed by Fairfield University at 1073 N Benson Rd, Benon, CT 06824.

Excluded: All office clerical employees, professional employees, and supervisors as defined by the Act.

Below are pictures and links to videos of panels, presenters, staff, and volunteers from our 2024 annual conference, which was held on March 17-19, 2024.in New York City.

We thank Alexandra Lacey of Persuasion Pictures for recording and producing the videos from the annual conference.

Higher Education Leadership Panel with (l-r) Rick Schaffer, former CUNY General Counsel, Ann Kirschner, Hunter College Interim President, Daniel Greenstein, PASSHE Chancellor and Catharine Bond Hill, Ithaka S+R, Managing Director.

Keynote Speaker:

Thomas A. Kochan, George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management, Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management.

Navigating Generative AI in Higher Education Panel with (l-r) Kyle Arnone, AFT Collective Bargaining Director, Amanda Blair, Fisher & Philips LLP, and Tony Picciano, Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center.

Contingent Faculty Job Security Facilitated Session with (l-r) Theodore Curry, Michigan State University Professor Emeritus, School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Mia McIver, UCLA Lecturer; UC-AFT Local 1474 former President and Benjamin Superfine, University of Illinois Chicago Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Relations.

Labor-Management Cooperation in Reversing Contingency Panel with (l-r) Melissa Sortman, Michigan State University Director of Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs, Heather Pierce, Rutgers University Adjunct Faculty Member, Carla Katz, Rutgers University, NTT Faculty Member and Kim O'Halloran, Rutgers University VP of Academic Planning & Administration.

Collective Bargaining and Library Personnel in Higher Education Panel with (l-r) Ahsan Ali, Tufts University Labor Relations Director, Kelly McElroy, United Academics of Oregon State, AAUP/AFT Local 9609, Meredith Kahn, LEO AFT-MI 6244, Campus Chair, (GLAM), Adriene Lim, University of Maryland - College Park Dean of Libraries and Consuella Askew, Rutgers University, VP for University Libraries.

Graduate Student Representation Election Outcomes Panel with (l-r) Jacob Apkarian, York College Associate Professor, Kathy Collins, Huron Consulting Group, Gary Rhoades, University of Arizona Professor and 

Nick DiGiovanni, Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP.

Collective Bargaining and Museums with (l-r) Michael Loconto, Loconto ADR, Trish Jeffers, Guggenheim Museum Amanda Tobin Ripley, Ohio State Graduate Teaching Associate, Donna Gustafson, Rutgers University, Maida Rosenstein, UAW Local 2110 and Halcyone Schiller, AFSCME DC 47.

Higher Ed Vaccine Mandates in Canada and the US with (l-r) Larry Savage and Alison Braley-Rattai, Brock University.

Trustees’ Perspectives on Collective Bargaining Panel with (l-r) Paul Brown, University of Michigan Board of Regents, Todd Regis, Central Michigan University Trustee, Susan Solomon, City College of San Francisco Trustee and Kenneth Mash, APSCUF President.

Book Discussion: Right to Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom with (l-r) Charles Toombs, CFA President, Ellen Schrecker, Professor Emerita, Yeshiva University, Helena Worthen, labor educator, retired, University of Illinois, and Jennifer Ruth, Portland State University Professor.

Resident and Fellow Unionization: State Medical Schools with (l-r) Sara Slinn, York University, David Dashefsky, CIR-SEIU, Wade Baughman, University of Michigan, Michael Kelly, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Cindy Hamra, University of Washington School of Medicine, and Banks Evans, University of Washington Labor Relations.

National Center Volunteers and Staff (l-r) Amy Jeu, Hunter College , Kim Middleton, CUNY Central, Greg and Winnie Johnson, National Center Staff.

National Center Staff with

(l-r) Michelle Savarese, National Center Administrator and Nancy Hanks, National Center Conference Coordinator.

Keynote Presentation by Thomas A. Kochan, George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management, Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management with an introduction by Adrienne Eaton, Dean, Office of the Dean and Distinguished Professor, Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers University.

Panel: Navigating Generative AI in Higher Education: Implications for Collective Bargaining, Pedagogy, and Research with Kyle Arnone, AFT Collective Bargaining Center, Anthony G. Picciano, Professor, Hunter College, School of Education and CUNY Graduate Center, Amanda M. Blair, Associate, Fisher & Phillips LLP, and Rob Weill, AFT Director of Policy, Research and Field Services, Panelist and Moderator.

Book Discussion: Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education: A Labor History with Gwendolyn Alker, Associate Arts Professor, Department of Drama, New York University, Joe T. Berry, Ph.D., City College of San Francisco and University of Illinois (retired), COCAL, HELU, Anne McLeer, Director of Higher Education and Strategic Planning, SEIU Local 500, Gary Rhoades, Professor and Director, Center for the Study of Higher Education, University of Arizona, Commentator, and Eric Fure-Slocum, Associate Professor of History (Emeritus), co-editor of Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education, Moderator.

Panel: Best Practices in Collective Negotiations with Pamela Silverblatt, Senior Counsel, Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, John Gross, Ingerman Smith LLP, Frederick Floss, Professor, Economics and Finance, and Co-Director, Center for Economic Education, SUNY Buffalo State University, Elizabeth Vignaux, Labor Relations Specialist, NYSUT, and Scott M. Sommer, Commissioner, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Moderator.

Panel: Best Practices in Arbitration with Homer LaRue, Labor Arbitrator, Mediator, and Professor, Howard University Law School, Marlene Gold, Labor Arbitrator, Mark Gaston Pearce, Labor Arbitrator, Visiting Professor and Executive Director, Workers’ Rights Institute, Georgetown University Law School, and Katie Rosen, Labor Arbitrator. Co-sponsored by the National Academy of Arbitrators.

Book Discussion: The Costs of Completion: Student Success in Community College with Robin G. Isserles, Author, The Costs of Completion: Student Success in Community College, Professor of Sociology, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, and Grievance Counselor for Full-time Faculty, PSC BMCC Chapter, Christine Mangino, President, Queensborough Community College, CUNY, Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, President, Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, Colena Sesanker, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Gateway Community College, CT, Member of Board of Regents of CSCU, and Jennifer Shanoski, Chemistry, Merritt College, Oakland California, Moderator.

Panel: Trustees’ Perspectives on Collective Bargaining with Susan Solomon, City College of San Francisco Trustee, Todd J. Regis, Central Michigan University Trustee, Paul Brown, University of Michigan Board of Regents, and Kenneth M. Mash, President, APSCUF, Moderator.

Panel: Bargaining Issues For Classified, Clerical, and Other Campus Staff with Sarah Wofford, AFT Vice President, Oregon School Employees Association, Christine O'Connell, President, Union of Rutgers Administrators AFT Local 1766, Rainah Chambliss, Co-President of the Faculty and Staff Federation of Community College of Philadelphia, and Andre’ Poplar, Vice Chancellor – Human Resources and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice, Oakland Community College – District, Moderator.