On Wednesday, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) staff representative Kevin Kniffin spoke to some of the UW-Oshkosh academic staff and faculty in regards to the advantages and disadvantages of collective bargaining.
On May 27, 2008, the state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Employee Relations approved bargaining agreements for the faculty and academic staff for UW schools.
Kniffin said since then, talks among UW faculty members have heated up about forming a union to pursue collective bargaining.
For the first time, those staff members will have the same opportunity as physicians, dentists, accountants, attorneys and other state employees to have a say in salary cuts, and how big of a burden they will carry in budget crises.
Collective bargaining is the negotiation between an employer and a labor union usually on wages, hours and working conditions.
Jim Simmons, chapter president of The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals (TAUWP), said some staff members, including some of whom have since retired, have been working on getting the rights of collective bargaining for UW schools as early as 1967.
In addition to being the Oshkosh political science department chair, he has also served on TAUWP for 20 years.
Simmons said according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Oshkosh academic staff and faculty salaries have long needed change.
“You have to go down to two-year community colleges with ranks to find salaries that average what we have here,” Simmons said.
Simmons said the quality of education for students at Oshkosh is indirectly affected by faculty salaries as well.
“Students really don’t benefit when someone comes here, spends some time here and then moves on to a better job that provides a much higher income and better commissions,” he said.
However, collective bargaining still needs to be approved by the Oshkosh faculty and academic staff; Kniffin suggested a support baseline of 70 percent of the staff before a vote should be taken on whether or not to unionize.
“A stronger faculty and academic staff would make for a stronger university,” Kniffin said.
Kniffin said an advantage of collective bargaining is the university staff not walking around with targets on their backs when it comes to budget cuts.
He said before Senate Bill 353 was passed, academic staff and faculty were the path of least resistance when the state was in a fiscal crisis; their salaries could be unilaterally cut without their approval.
Simmons said similar AFT unions in other states have enjoyed a lot of success from unionizing.
“If you look at the systems that have collective bargaining, they’re fine systems,” he said.
No future meeting date was set for those staff members interested in forming a union-organizing group, but many in attendance signed up to be included on future correspondence about the possibility of unionizing.
Be the first to comment on this article!