Visiting professors promote unions
Published Nov. 14, 2006
MU faculty and staff discussed forming a union in the third and final informational meeting sponsored by The Missouri National Education Association on Monday.
"There are unique challenges of organizing on the 'crown jewel' (of the UM system)," said Steve McLuckie, MNEA's organizing director. "It's more difficult than a regional university or a community college. It's bigger and messier, and we recognize that."
The association had three guest speakers with experience forming collegiate unions speak to the audience. Ron Mozelewski and David Risch, both professors from St. Louis Community College and leaders in their union, spoke about the union that was formed at SLCC in 1978.
UniServ Director for MNEA Vito Maniaci spoke about the next step in union formation and technical benefits to membership.
A common theme at the meeting was the positive element to joining a union. Both Mozelewski and Risch agreed that relations at SLCC between faculty and administration became much smoother after the union came into existence.
"I think it made relationships a lot better," Risch said. "I can honestly say we're far better off with the organization than we were before."
In addition to the benefits of union membership in general, all three speakers highlighted the benefits of an MNEA-facilitated union and tried to convince the faculty and staff in attendance to partner with MNEA.
If a union is formed, it doesn't necessarily have to be formed with MNEA.
"One thing that distinguishes MNEA from any other union in the universe is that people like [Mozelewski and Risch], faculty members as leaders, are elected," Maniaci said. "Staff like me step back and ask, 'What can I do today to help you achieve whatever goals you have set for yourself?' No other union does that."
One key difference between a union at MU and the one at SLCC is that it would be unlikely that the union would have the power to bargain with the administration.
According to the Missouri Constitution, private universities must grant its employees the right to bargain for rights and things such as wages. Public universities have no such requirement. They can grant bargaining rights, like SLU's administration has, but they are under no obligation to.
Maniaci said it is unlikely that MU's administration would grant those rights.
"One thing that is absolutely predictable is that the management of MU will do everything they can do to discourage you from organizing," Maniaci said.
Things at SLCC are not always smooth either.
"I don't want to give you the false impression," Mozelewski said. "We don't always win. But at least you've got a fighting chance."
Issues teachers and staff negotiate can range from salaries and the appointment of new staff to decision-making in general. Some of the concerns raised by MU faculty and staff during the meeting were discrepancies between the treatment of tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty, whether to unionize right away, how new staff is hired, and salaries.
Now that informational meetings have come to an end, the MNEA is preparing its next step in possible union formation.
"We're going to have a planning meeting where we'll invite everyone who has attended the informational meetings, and we'll talk about what the next step is," McLuckie said.
The first planning meeting will not be scheduled until after Thanksgiving break.
