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NATIONAL CENTER
for the Study of Collective Bargaining in
Higher Education and the Professions
E-Note
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Register Now for the National Center's 2016 Conference
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Our Future is Now in Higher Education
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Registration has begun for the National Center's 2016 annual national conference. The preliminary list of plenary sessions, panel presentations and interactive workshops is available here. Updates concerning the conference will be announced in future E-Notes and on our website The conference will take place on April 3-5, 2016 at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. The theme of the conference is Our Future is Now in Higher Education. The conference is being underwritten by a grant from TIAA-CREF with additional support from Segal/Sibson. 
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The Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy
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The National Center's Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy (JCBA) is our peer review on-line journal. It is co-edited by Jeffrey Cross, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Eastern Illinois University, and Steve Hicks, Associate Professor of English, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. The journal is hosted by the institutional repository of Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University.
The purposes of the journal are 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. Submissions are encouraged from a wide community of scholars and practitioners including, but not limited to, college and university professors, graduate students, administrators, union leaders, and others with an interest in collective bargaining in the academy.
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NLRB Election Scheduled for University of Chicago Contingent Faculty
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University of Chicago, NLRB Case No. 13-RC-162896
SEIU filed a representation petition with the NLRB on October 29, 2015 on behalf of approximately 350 full-time and part-time graduate and undergraduate non-tenure track faculty seeking to unionize at the University of Chicago. On November 5, 2015, the parties entered into a stipulated election agreement, and a notice of election was issued by the NLRB Region 13 Office. Pursuant to the NLRB notice, a mail ballot election is being conducted. The ballots were mailed to the eligible voters on November 20, 2015, and the ballot count is scheduled for December 9, 2015. Below are the voting eligibility requirements and the voting unit set forth in the notice of election: Eligible Voters: All employees who were employed in the bargaining unit below during the payroll period ending 10/22/2015 and on the day the voter mails the ballot to the NLRB.Voting Unit:
Including: All full-time and part-time graduate and undergraduate non-tenure-track academic appointees, including the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for Marathi Language Program, the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer with the lead role in the Practicum in the undergraduate Public Policy Program, the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsilbe for the Persian Language Program, the non supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for career advising and the coordination of internships in the MAPSS Program, the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for the applied mathematics component of the undergraduate Biolory Program, the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for Ecology and Evolution Programs for undergraduates not majoring in biology, the non supervisory Senior Lecturer in the Yiddish Language Program, and the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for the introductory and compensated directly by the University of Chicago at it Main campus at 5801 South Ellis Avenue, the School of Social Service Administration at 969 East 60th Street, the Divinity School at Swift Hall, 1025 East 58th Street, the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at 1155 East 60th Street and who are currently teaching at least one credit-bearing course(excuding hybrid and blended courses) in a dergee-granting program.
Excluding: All tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty, distinguished service faculty, research associates with or without parenthetical rank who are not teaching credit bearing courses, and emeritus faculty, all faculty in non-degree granting programs; all faculty teaching at locations other than the facilities or addresses described above; all faculty teaching online courses only; employees who do not teach undergraduate or graduate level credit-earning courses or labs; L. E. Dickson Instructors in the Department of Mathematics; Members of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts holding the academic rank of Collegiate Assistant Professor; Senior Lecturers other than those expressly included above; instructors in the Business Math and Computer Science masters programs; the Pritzker School of Medicine faculty not tenured or on the tenure track; the Graham School of Continuing Liberal Arts and Professional Studies appointees; the Booth School of Business appointees; the Law School appointees; the Urban Teacher Institute and Urban Teacher Education Program appointees; appointees paid by entities other than the University of Chicago (including governments and organizations), instructors who are employed by national laboratories managed by the University of Chicago, including Argonne Laboratory, Fermi Laboratory and instructors who are employed by the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA (an affiliate of the University of Chicago); all administrators (including deans, directors, provosts, and chairs who may have teaching assignments); graduate students including those teaching courses in addition to a stipend; athletic coaches; all other employees employed by the University, including those who teach a class or course and are separately compensated for such teaching; curators; and managers, confidential employees, office clerical employees, professional employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.
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Brandeis University Adjunct Faculty Scheduled to Vote on Unionization
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Brandeis University, NLRB Case No. 01-RC-163352
Pursuant to a notice of election issued by the NLRB Region 1 Office on November 16, 2015, a mail ballot election will commence on December 2, 2015 among contingent faculty at Brandeis University to decide whether they want to unionize and be represented by SEIU. The ballots will be counted on December 18, 2015.
The notice of election was issued as a result of an SEIU representation petition filed on November 4, 2015 on behalf of approximately 230 full-time and part-time graduate and undergraduate non-tenure track faculty seeking to unionize at Brandeis University.
The following are the voting eligibility requirements and the voting unit set forth in the notice of election:
All graduate and undergraduate non-tenure track faculty in the below-listed classifications employed by Brandeis University who are contracted to teach at least one credit-bearing or non-credit bearing course (including online, hybrid and blended courses and including Spring, Summer and Fall courses) at the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate College of Arts & Sciences, the International Business School, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, the Rabb School of Continuing Studies, English Language Programs, Gateway Scholars Programs, Summer Courses, or Justice Brandeis Semester, or who are contracted to reach courses in the Transitional Year Program, and who were employed by the employer during the payroll period ending October 31, 2015.
Adjuncts; Assistant Adjunct Professors; Associate Adjunct Professors; Adjunct Associate Professors; Adjunct Lecturers; Adjunct Professors; Adjunct Associate Professors of the Practice; Instructors; Senior Instructors; Lecturers; Senior Lecturers; Part-time Fellows; In-residence Writers, Poets, and Artists; Research Professors; Associate Research Professors; Assistant Research Professors; Professors, Assistant Professors and Associate Professors Outside the Tenure Structure; Professors and Associate Professors of the Practice who are not on multi-year contracts; Graduate Students who teach courses beyond their stipend and are compensated one a per-course basis.
An employee working for the University in another capacity who also teaches a class or course identified above and is compensated on a per course basis is included within the unit, unless the employee is expressly excluded.
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Emerson College LA Part-Time Faculty to Vote on Unionization
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| Emerson College, NLRB Case No. 31-RC-162979
On October 29, 2015, AAUP filed a representation petition with NLRB Region 31 Office seeking to represent approximately 18 part-time faculty in the following proposed bargaining unit at Emerson College's Los Angeles campus:
Included: All part-time faculty teaching at the Los Angeles campus of Emerson.
Excluded: Full-time faculty, administrators, other non-teaching employees.
A notice of election was issued on November 5, 2015 by the NLRB Region 31Office scheduling a mail ballot election. Under the notice, ballots were mailed out on November 23, 2015, and the ballot count will take place on December 11, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. The following are the voting eligibility requirements and the voting unit set forth in the notice of election:
Employees Eligible to Vote:
All part-time faculty who teach credit earning courses in the undergraduate program during the academic year who were employed by the Employer and taught a course in at least one semester during the current or previous academic year.
Employees Not Eligible to Vote:
All other employees, full time faculty, graduate students, lab assistants, graduate assistants, teaching associates, clinical fellows, teaching fellows, teaching assistants, research assistants, full-time or part-time staff or administrators, whether or not they also have teaching responsibilities, deans, registrars, librarians, volunteers, Emerson faculty who teach outside of the Los Angeles Campus, faculty in residence, visiting Boston faculty in residence, professional studies instructors, graduate and post graduate instructors, summer term faculty, teaching on-line courses (regardless of location), the Assistant Director of Experiential Learning, and the Founding Director and Vice President, other represented employees, clerical employees, managers, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
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UAW Files Petition for Adjuncts at NYU Tandon School of Engineering
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NYU Tandon School of Engineering (NYU Polytechnic),
NLRB Case No. 29-RC-163860
The UAW filed a representation petition on November 10, 2015 with the NLRB Region 29 Office seeking to represent approximately 280 adjunct faculty at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. The representation petition seeks the certification of the UAW as the exclusive representative of the following proposed unit:
Included: All adjunct or part-time faculty employed by the employer.
Excluded: All full-time faculty (tenured, tenure track, and non-tenure track), graduate student employees and all other employees including Visiting Professors, Visiting Associate Professors, Visiting Assistant Professors, confidential employees, and guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.
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SEIU Files to Represent Adjunct Faculty at Loyola University Chicago
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Loyola University Chicago, NLRB Case No. 13-RC-164618
SEIU filed a representation petition on November 20, 2015 with the NLRB Region 13 Office seeking to represent approximately 250 non-tenure track faculty at Loyola University Chicago. The representation petition seeks the certification of SEIU as the exclusive representative of the following proposed faculty unit:
Including: All full-time and part-time graduate and undergraduate non-tenure-track faculty (Adjuncts, Adjunct Professors, Adjunct Instructors, Adjunct Lecturers, Accompanists, Instructors, Lecturers, Lab Instructors, Senior Lecturers, and Visiting Faculty) employed by Loyola University Chicago in academic programs housed at its Main campus, 1032 W. Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL 60660, including the College of Arts & Sciences, the English Language Learning Program, and the Graduate School
Excluding: All tenure faculty, tenure-track faculty, distinguished service faculty, research faculty who are not teaching credit bearing courses, and emeritus faculty; all faculty in non-degree granting programs, unless expressly included above; all faculty teaching in programs housed or facilities and addresses other that those described above; all faculty teaching online courses only; employees who do not reach undergraduate or graduate level credit-earning courses or labs, unless expressly included above; the Water Tower Campus, the Health Sciences Campus, the Retreat and Ecology Campus, the Rome Campus, the Beijing Campus, the Vietnam Center, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, the Stritch School of Medicine, the Quinlan School of Business, the School of Education, the Corboy Law Center, the School of Social Work, the School of Communications, the Institute or Pastoral Studies, the Arrupe College, the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA), faculty paid by entities other than Loyola University Chicago (including governments and organizations); all administrators (including deans, directors, trustees, provosts, and chairs who have teaching assignments); graduate students; athletic coaches; academic advisors, including those with reaching assignments; all other employees employed by the University, including those who teach a class or course and separately compensated for such teaching; managers, confidential employees, office clerical employees, professional employees and guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.
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| Petitions Filed by SEIU for USC Non-Tenure Track Faculty and Lecturers |
University of Southern California, NLRB Case No. 31-RC-164864
On November 24, 2016, SEIU filed two representation petitions concerning faculty at the University of Southern California (USC). In Case No. 31-RC-164864, SEIU seeks to represent a unit of approximately 300 USC full-time and part-time non-tenure track faculty. In the second petition, Case No. 31-RC-164871, SEIU seeks to represent a unit of approximately 48 USC full-time and part-time lecturers.
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Urbana-Champaign Adjunct Faculty Denied Reconsideration by IELRB
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Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, IELRB Case No. 2015-CA-0006-S
As we reported in our September 2015 E-Note, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (IELRB) dismissed unfair labor practice charge filed by the Campus Faculty Association, Non-Tenure Track Local 6546, AAUP, IFT-AFT, AFL-CIO (CFA). The charge had alleged that the university violated the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act when it failed to give CFA bargaining unit members the raises received by other university employees, effective August 2014.
Following the decision, CFA requested IELRB to rescind the decision and remand it to a different administrative law judge (ALJ). CFA argued that the original ALJ improperly verbally recommended to IELRB that the complaint be dismissed, and that CFA had not been provided with an opportunity to file exceptions to the ALJ's verbal recommendation. In denying CFA's motion, IELRB ruled that it did not have the statutory authority to reconsider its prior decision. Alternatively, it concluded that it would have rejected CFA's motion because the procedures followed were consistent with the agency's longstanding practice of staff members presenting cases to the Board and providing Board members with verbal recommendations in particular cases.
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NLRB To Review Graduate Student Employee Status under NLRA
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New School, NLRB Case No. 02-RC-143009
Columbia University, NLRB Case No. 02-RC-143012
Update on NLRB Cases Concerning Representation of Graduate Students
On October 21, 2015, the NLRB Board granted a UAW request for review of the Region 2 Director's decision to dismiss a representation petition that sought certification of a bargaining unit composed of all student employees at the New School. Member Miscimarrra dissented from the grant of the review.
The Region 2 Director dismissed the UAW petition following a hearing, concluding that the at-issue students at the New School were not employees within the meaning of Section 2(3) of the NLRA under the holding in Brown University, 342 NLRB 483 (2004). The grant of review in the New School case will provide the NLRB Board with an opportunity to revisit the decision in Brown University concerning the employee status of graduate students.
In a related representation case, the Region 2 Director on October 30, 2015 issued a supplemental decision and order dismissing a UAW petition following a hearing that sought to represent a unit of student employees at Columbia University. The petition was also dismissed based upon the Brown University decision. The following is the at-issue bargaining unit sought at Columbia University:
Included: All student employees who provide instructional services, including graduate and undergraduate Teaching Assistants (Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, Preceptors, Course Assistants, Readers and Graders); All Graduate Research Assistants (including those compensated through Training Grants) and All Departmental Research Assistants employed by the Employer at all of its facilities, including Morningside Heights, Health Sciences, Lamont-Doherty and Nevis facilities.
Excluded: All other employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.
On November 13, 2015, the UAW filed a request for review of the Region 2 Director's decision in Columbia University arguing, as it did in New School, that Brown University should be reversed. Columbia University filed its own request for review in the event the NLRB Board grants the UAW's request. In the university's request, it seeks review of the Regional Director's finding that it would be appropriate to include undergraduate and masters students with instructional appointments and students supported by training grants in a potential bargaining unit. Click here for related Chronicle article.
Graduate Student Unionization to Be Subject of Panels at 2016 Conference
In light of the recent developments concerning graduate student organizing and unionization, the National Center has scheduled two panel discussions focused on these issues at our April 3-5, 2015 conference:
Brown University Redux with Wilma Liebman, Visiting Scholar, Rutgers University, School of Management and Labor Relations and former NLRB Chairman, Joe Ambash, Fisher & Phillips LLP, and Paula Voos, Associate Dean and Director, Undergraduate and Master's Programs in Labor and Employment Relations, Rutgers University with moderator Harris Freeman, Professor, Legal Research and Writing, Western New England University and Massachusetts Commonwealth Employment Relations Board member.
Graduate Assistants, Unionization, and Negotiations with Michael Eagen, Director and Counsel, University of Connecticut Office of Faculty and Staff Labor Relations, Kenneth Lang, UAW Region 9A International Representative, Julie Kushner, UAW Region 9A Director, and Raymond L. Haines, Associate Vice Chancellor for Employee Relations, State University of New York with moderator James O. Castagnera, Associate Provost and Associate Counsel, Rider University.
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NLRB Grants Review to Decide Whether to Exercise Jurisdiction Over a Representation Petition Concerning Housekeepers at Saint Xavier Univ.
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Saint Xavier University, NLRB Case No. Case 13-RC-092296
The NLRB Board on November 3, 2015 granted Saint Xavier University's request to review a Regional Director's supplemental decision, which concluded that the NLRB could assert jurisdiction over a representation petition concerning full-time and part-time housekeepers working for the school. In reaching the supplemental decision, the Regional Director utilized the modified test set forth Pacific Lutheran University, 361 NLRB No. 157 (2014). Saint Xavier argued that the NLRB cannot assert jurisdiction because it is a religiously operated school.
In granting the university's request for review, the NLRB Board requested the parties to address whether it should follow its prior precedent to assert jurisdiction over secular, non-teaching employees at religiously affiliated organizations, extend the test in Pacific Lutheran University to non-teaching employees or apply a different test.
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| Saint Louis Community College Part-Time Faculty Vote for Unionization |
According to a media report, the part-time faculty at Saint Louis Community College have voted 188-15 to unionize and to be represented by SEIU, out of approximately 550 faculty. The election was conducted pursuant to a notice of election issued by the Saint Louis Community College Board of Trustees.
The following is the at-issue voting unit set forth in the notice of election:
Included: All part-time faculty teaching at least one credit bearing course on one of the following STLCC campuses in Fall 2015: Florissant Valley, Forest Park, Meramec, Wildwood, and any and all other STLCC campuses.
Excluded are: All full-time faculty; faculty who have another position at the College that qualifies them for full-time status with STLCC; deans, administrators, department chairs; faculty who also serve in a supervisory, managerial, or confidential role; faculty who teach only online courses; faculty who teach only courses as a field supervisor; faculty who teach only continuing education courses; all other employees, managers, confidential employees, office clerical employees, professional employees, police officers, security officers, or supervisors.
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Temple University PT Faculty Vote to Become Part of AFT Faculty Union
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Temple University, Case No. PERA-R.14-400-E
According to a media report, the part-time faculty at Temple University's undergraduate schools and colleges voted 609-266 to join the existing bargaining unit of full-time faculty and other professionals. The election resulted from a decision by a Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board Hearing Examiner concerning a representation petition filed by the AFT-affiliated Temple Association of University Professionals (TAUP) that sought to add the part-time faculty to the TAUP-represented bargaining unit.
The TAUP-represented bargaining unit had included approximately 500 full-time tenured faculty, 150 tenure-track faculty, 600 non-tenure track faculty, 25 librarians and 25 academic professionals. As a result of the election, 1,400 part-time faculty will be added to the bargaining unit unless the election results are challenged.
Temple University opposed the accretion effort by TAUP, and the school distributed a memorandum before the election critical of combined full-time and part-time faculty bargaining units. |
Lane Comm Coll. Settles ULP Over Union Representative's Behavior
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Lane Community College, OERB Case No. UP-045-14
Lane Community College in Oregon recently settled an unfair labor practice charge filed by he Lane Community College Education Association. The charge alleged that the college had violated Oregon's public sector collective bargaining statute when it refused a request by the Association for information concerning alleged misbehavior by an Association representative, and when it conditioned the representative's continued participation in College governance on conformity with a undeveloped behavior protocol. In the settlement, the College acknowledged it had violated the law when it refused the information sought and when it threatened to exclude the Association representative from participating in goverance unless the representative refrained from certain undisclosed types of conduct.
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Faculty Union Organizing Taking Place on Four Other Campuses
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According to recent media reports, unionization efforts involving faculty are taking place with the support of SEIU at Duke University and the University of Washington. Congressman Scott H. Peters has sent a letter to the Duke University President and Provost urging the university to adopt a neutral stance concerning the organizing effort. In addition, USW is aiding the faculty unionization campaign at the University of Pittsburgh, and AAUP is supporting a similar effort at the University of Iowa.
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National Center Welcomes Legal Intern Joel Goldenberg
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National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions
425 E 25th St.
Box 615
New York, NY 10010
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Copyright � 2015. All Rights Reserved.
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