NATIONAL CENTER
for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions
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Our May 2020 newsletter
includes information about the National Center's June series of webinars in conjunction with the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College The newsletter also includes the current list of confirmed panels and speakers for our rescheduled annual national conference on October 19-20.
In this month's newsletter, we announce a new National Center research project aimed at collecting and analyzing collective bargaining agreements in higher education related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We encourage all labor representatives and administrators to upload copies of agreements that have been reached over the past few months related to the pandemic.
In the newsletter, we also discuss the potential impact of the new Title IX regulations on existing provisions in higher education collective bargaining agreements. We report on a recent decision by the Oregon Employment Relations Board finding that Oregon State University engaged in an unfair labor practice during a 2018 faculty and post-doctoral scholar organizing campaign. Lastly, the newsletter includes information about upcoming conferences and events by other institutions and organizations that might be of interest to you along with links to articles in the current volume of the J
ournal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy.
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Register Now for National Center June Webinars
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UPCOMING WEBINARS
The Gig Academy and COVID-19: Implications for the Future
Adrianna Kezar, Endowed Professor and Dean's Professor of Leadership, USC, Director of the Pullias Center, and Director Delphi Project, Daniel Greenstein, Chancellor, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education
and a member of the National Center's Board of Advisors,
Henry Reichman, Chair, Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, AAUP,
Maria Maisto, New Faculty Majority, and William A. Herbert, National Center, Hunter College, CUNY, Moderator.
Description
:
In a recently published book, The Gig Academy: Mapping Labor in the Neoliberal University, Adrianna Kezar and her co-authors describe and critique the restructuring of labor relations in higher education over the past few decades that included a massive increase in precarious employment in the form of contingent faculty positions, post-doctoral appointments, and the use of graduate assistants for teaching and research. Today, non-tenure track faculty make up 70% of college instructors nationwide. During this webinar, the panel will be discussing the book's insights and recommendations as well as their relevance for post-pandemic colleges and universities.
Collective Bargaining and Online Technologies in the Age of a Pandemic
Joseph McConnell, Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP, Cynthia Eaton, Secretary, Faculty Association, Suffolk County Community College, Gary Rhoades, Professor of Higher Education, University of Arizona, and Co-Editor, Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, and William A. Herbert, National Center, Hunter College, CUNY, Moderator.
Description
:
This webinar will include presentations by the three panelists who will be examining collective bargaining and online technologies, which will be followed by Q & A, and information sharing about bargaining issues and experiences from around the country. The following are some of the issues that will be discussed during the webinar: the use of online technology for the conduct of bargaining; specific negotiation topics related to online learning during the pandemic; how collective bargaining can alleviate the negative consequences of the digital and economic divide in our communities; and how the expansion of online teaching in higher education might impact the shape of collective bargaining.
The Future of Privatization in Higher Education: Post-Pandemic
Rima Brusi, Distinguished Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, and Writer in Residence at the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies, Lehman College, CUNY,
Shahrzad Habibi,
Research and Policy Director, In the Public Interest, Robert Shireman
,
Director of Higher Education Excellence and a Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation,
and William A. Herbert, National Center, Hunter College, CUNY, Moderator.
Description
: This webinar will examine the future of privatization in higher education following the devastation caused by COVID-19. The speakers will examine the privatization and resistance at the University of Puerto Rico, the challenges to privatization at California State University, the use of public-private partnerships on campus, and the renewed federal promotion of the for-profit higher education industry. This panel has been organized in conjunction with
In the Public Interest
, a research and policy center on privatization.
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National Center's 2020 Annual Conference: October 19-20, 2020
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The National Center's 47th annual conference will be held
October 19-20, 2020
in New York City. We are working on contingency plans that will allow us to hold an in-person conference, a blended conference, or a fully virtual conference.
Please fill out this
short survey to help us develop the best format and design for the conference. Your input is very important right now in helping us plan.
The conference agenda will include some of the panels on inequality, collective bargaining, and higher education we had developed for the original
conference agenda
, with additional analysis related to the impact of the pandemic.
Paid registrations for our 2020 conference will be applied to the rescheduled conference in October and to our ongoing webinar series.
Stay informed about the October 19-20 conference by visiting our website and our monthly newsletters, as conference plans may change.
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TIAA is a sponsor of the National Center's 47th
annual conference with additional funding provided by AFT, SEIU, and The Standard Insurance Company.
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Conference Keynote Speaker: Steven Greenhouse
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Keynote Speaker: Steven Greenhouse
Steven Greenhouse, the former
New York Times
labor and workplace correspondent, will be the keynote speaker at our rescheduled annual conference in October.
Mr. Greenhouse will be analyzing labor's response to the pandemic in the context of the historical and contemporary themes set forth in his
exceptional book
Beaten Down, Worked Up:
The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor
(2019). His book traces U.S. labor history from the 20th Century up to and including the first two decades of the 21st Century. The book was published last year by Knopf. Mr. Greenhouse's most recent
article
on the future of labor in post-Pandemic America appeared in The American Prospect.
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Conference Plenary: The Student Debt Crisis
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The Student Debt Crisis: History, Consequences, and Post-Pandemic Solutions
with Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, Associate Professor, Loyola University Chicago, Caitlin Zaloom, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University,
Jennifer Mishory, Senior Fellow and Senior Policy Advisor, Century Foundation, and Suzanne Kahn, Deputy Director of the Great Democracy Initiative and Education Program at the Roosevelt Institute.
Professor Zaloom is the author of the new book titled
Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost,
published by Princeton University Press. Professor Shermer is working on an up-coming book examining the history of the student debt industry.
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Confirmed October Conference Panels
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The following is a list of confirmed panels for the October 19-20, 2020 conference:
Panel: Growth in Union Density Among Academic Labor, 2012-2019
with Jacob Apkarian, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Behavioral Sciences, York College, CUNY and National Center Affiliated Researcher, Joseph van der Naald,
Graduate Student Researcher, Program in Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY and National Center Affiliated Researcher and William A. Herbert, Distinguished Lecturer and National Center Executive Director, Moderator and Presenter.
Panel: Affirmative Action in Higher Education, Post-Pandemic
with Cara McClellan, Assistant Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Risa Lieberwitz, General Counsel, AAUP and Professor of Labor and Employment Law, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Victor Goode, Associate Professor, CUNY Law School, and Lili Palacios-Baldwin, Deputy General Counsel for Labor, Employment & Litigation, Tufts University, Moderator.
Panel: Negotiating for Part-Time Faculty Equity
with Will Silvio, President, Berklee College of Music Faculty Union, Jay Kennedy, Berklee College of Music Vice President for Academic Affairs/Vice Provost, Darryl Wood, NYSUT Labor Relations Specialist, Dia M.Carleton, Chief Human Resources Officer, SUNY Oneonta, and Beth Margolis, Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss, LLP, Moderator.
Panel: Higher Education Funding After the Pandemic
with
Fred Floss, Professor and Chair, Department of Economics and Finance, SUNY Buffalo State University and Fiscal Policy Institute, Senior Fellow, Thomas Anderson, Executive Director, Union of Part-Time Faculty, AFT Local 477, AFL-CIO, Thomas L. Harnisch, Vice President for Government Relations, State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (panel in formation).
Panel: Contingent Faculty, Job Security, and Academic Freedom
with Carl Levine, Levy Ratner P.C., Keila Tennant, Associate General Counsel and VP for Labor Relations, The New School, Sonam Singh, former Unit Chair, BCF-UAW Local 2110 and Barry Miller, Senior Policy Advisor on Labour Relations, Office of the Provost, York University, Moderator.
Panel: Reasonable Accommodations for Faculty and Teaching Assistants
with Jamie Daniel, former AAUP National Field Service Representative
, Alexandra (Sascha) Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Senior Director, Academic Human Resources, University of Michigan,
Laura Yvonne Bulk,
President, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 2278), PhD Candidate, Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of British Columbia
,
John Rose, Dean for Diversity, Hunter College, and Barbara Aloni, Disability & Productivity Consultant, The Standard Insurance.
Panel: Collective Bargaining from All Sides: Unionism, the Faculty Senate, Contingent Faculty, and Academic Administration
with
Jon E. Bekken, Albright College, David Hamilton Golland, Governors State University, Nelson Ouellet, Université de Moncton, Naomi R Williams, Rutgers University, and Theodore Curry, Associate Provost, Associate VP, Michigan State University, Moderator and Commentator.
Panel: Mass Incarceration and Higher Education
with Patrick Mitchell, Board Member, Community College Association, CTA, NEA, Michelle Jones, Doctoral Student, New York University, and Bidhan Chandra Roy, College of Arts and Letters, California State University, Los Angeles, Participant and Moderator (panel in formation).
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Research on COVID-19 and Collective Bargaining
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The National Center has commenced a research project to examine the use of collective bargaining in higher education during COVID-19 crisis.
To assist with our research, we request that you
upload a copy of labor-management agreements that have been reached on your campus over the past three months in response to the pandemic.
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New Title IX Regulations and Collective Bargaining
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On May 6, 2020, the United States Department of Education issued its final regulations concerning campus sexual assault and misconduct under Title IX, the federal law that bans gender discrimination at federally funded institutions. The final rule, when it becomes effective, will change the obligations of institutions in responding to allegations of sexual assault and misconduct on campus.
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Oregon State Univ: ULP for Using State Funds to Fight Unionization
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Oregon State University, OERB UP-021-18
On May 4, 2020, the Oregon Employment Relations Board (OERB) issued a
decision, following oral arguments, finding that Oregon State University (OSU) engaged in an unfair labor practice when it used public funds to influence faculty and post-doctoral scholars on the question of union representation during an organizing drive by United Academics of Oregon State University.
Under Oregon's public sector collective bargaining law, a public employer is prohibited from using "public funds to support actions to assist, promote or deter union organizing." The purpose of the statute was to ensure that public entities remained neutral during organizing drives and thereby preserve public resources. The statute includes an exception for when an employer or supervisor responds to an employee's request for an opinion about the union organizing.
OERB interprets the law "as prohibiting any act or instance of a public employer making an effort to affect or alter (including by indirect or intangible means) the decision of any or all of its employees regarding whether to support or oppose a labor organization that seeks to represent those employees."
The facts in this case before OERB were largely undisputed. In response to the public commencement of an organizing drive in 2018 among OSU faculty and post-doctoral scholars, OSU administrators began to circulate information about the campaign through emails and an OSU webpage containing frequently asked questions (FAQs) and answers prepared by administrators during the period March-June 2018.
Based on the totality of OSU's conduct, OERB found that the university's use of the FAQ webpage was "to subtly influence the campus debate on whether its employees should support or oppose the Union and, in some instances, OSU actively participated in that debate."
In support of its finding, OERB cited OSU's failure on multiple occasions to publish and answer questions from employees on the FAQ webpage. The agency also referenced times when OSU edited questions from employees before publishing including omitting a pro-union perspective in one question. In contrast, OSU did not edit out anti-union comments in other questions. OSU also posted FAQs on its webpage that were not from employees. but rather were an institutional means of responding to a newspaper story. The university also used FAQs to presnet its opinions and legal positions rather than factual information. In other situations, OSU provided it own advice to employees by answering some questions with information that exceeded the scope of the questions.
As a remedy, OERB ordered OSU to cease and desist from violating the Oregon law, to post and distribute by email a notice of its violation and to pay the union a civil fine of $3.00. The small civil penalty is based on the statutory limitation for civil penalties for misusing state funds in an organizing campaign: triple the amount of funds expended by the public employer. In this case, it was stipulated that OSU spent $1.00 of public funding in preparing, distributing, and posting the e-mails and FAQs.
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Register for LERA's Virtual Annual Conference
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virtually on June 13-16, 2020 rather than in-person.
The theme of the conference is Social, Economic, and Environmental Sustainability and the World of Work. The National Center's Bill Herbert and Joseph van der Naald will be presenting their research on graduate assistant unionization at the conference.
There is still time to
register
for the LERA's virtual national conference.
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NYU Labor and Center for Labor and Employment Law Events
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Our friends at the NYU Center for Labor and Employment Law have announced three upcoming events of interest.
On September 17, 2020, there will be a panel discussion at the NYU Center titled The Impact of COVID-19 on Employment Law.
Register here.
On October 1-2, 2020, the NYU Center will be holding its
73rd Annual NYU Conference on Labor. The conference theme is Addressing Pay Equity and Issues of Inequality at Work.
Register here
.
On December 3, 2020, the NYU Center will be hosting a half-day conference on worker re-training and up-skilling, evaluating and exploring policies to help today's and tomorrow's workers meet the labor demands of both automating and human-touch workplaces. The conference, titled
Retraining America for the Future of Work
, will be co-facilitated by NYU Law Professors Samuel Estreicher and Jonathan F. Harris.
Register here.
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Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, Vol. 11
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The National Center is pleased to announce publication of Volume 11
Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, our a peer review multi-disciplinary journal co-edited by Jeffrey Cross, Eastern Illinois University (Emeritus), and Gary Rhoades, University of Arizona. The following are links to articles, op-eds, and practitioner perspectives from Volume 11.
Op-Eds:
Articles:
Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas, Laurel Smith-Doerr, Henry Renski, and Laras Sekarasih,
Practitioner Perspectives
We encourage scholars and practitioners in the fields of collective bargaining, labor relations, and labor history to submit articles for potential publication for Volume 12 of the Journal.
The Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy is supported, in part, by a generous contribution from TIAA and is hosted by the institutional repository of Eastern Illinois University.
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COCAL Biennial Conference Postponed
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The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) has postponed its 2020 biennial conference originally scheduled for August 7-9, 2020 in Queretaro City, Mexico. It is planning an online event for September.
COCAL is a network of North American activists working to improve higher education by improving the work environment of contingent academic laborers. They strive to achieve job reliability, better wages, academic freedom, and time and resources for academic research and professional development.
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Teaching Labor's Story: Resources for the Classroom and Beyond
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TEACHING LABOR’S STORY
RESOURCES for the CLASSROOM & BEYOND
from the
LABOR AND WORKING CLASS HISTORY ASSOCIATION
Announcement and Call for Submissions:
Teaching Labor’s Story (TLS) is a project of the Labor and Working Class History Association (LAWCHA). Its on-line repository of chronologically organized materials is dedicated to providing teachers, labor educators, workers, and the public with resources that can be readily incorporated into existing curriculum.
Teaching Labor’s Story furthers LAWCHA’s mission to “promote public and scholarly awareness of labor and working-class history” and its commitment to “teaching labor history in the classroom, from K12 to colleges and universities.”
WHAT?
Each TLS entry has two parts:
· A primary source carefully selected to reveal labor voices, experiences and actions during a commonly recognized historical era or event. Primary sources may be textual, visual, or audio. (length: 1-2 pages)
· A custom-written teaching guide accompanies each primary source. Teaching guides follow a common template that includes a short essay that contextualizes and explains the source (highlighting both broad trends and noteworthy particularities); identifies the primary source’s connection to established history curriculum; and provides a brief glossary of terms, discussion or writing prompts, and suggests additional resources. (length 4-7 pages)
WHO?
Teaching Labor’s Story entries are written by labor history scholars. Each TLS entry is peer-reviewed. This ensures accessible, high quality teaching resources for users, and professional publishing opportunities for authors.
Interested in using TLS resources? Interested in writing a TLS entry?
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National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining
in Higher Education and the Professions
Hunter College, City University of New York
425 E 25th St.
Box 615
New York, NY 10010
Copyright © 2019. All Rights Reserved.
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