Faculty members at the Art Institute of Seattle, a for-profit college owned by the Education Management Corporation, voted narrowly last week against forming a union, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported. A spokewoman for the American Federation of Teachers said she was surprised at the result because it seemed that faculty members initially wanted a union. She said the institute’s response to the union bid — to reduce class sizes, improve facilities, and address faculty concerns about the quality of education, among other things — might have made a difference. But an instructor accused the college of using “union busting” tactics, including mandatory meetings and several phone calls each day with a message of “intimidation” about how a union was “going to be bad.”
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6 Responses to Faculty Members Vote Down Union at For-Profit Arts College in Seattle
cpliefeld - July 27, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Wise.
duchess_of_malfi - July 27, 2010 at 4:29 pm
It’s an interesting result and I wish we could know more.We’re undergoing similar tactics from administration at my large public university, alternating between carrots and sticks. One of the annoying things is how much money the anti-union fight is costing. One of my favorites arguments is that “Unions are not for people like us; they’re for other kinds of workers–you know, *factory* workers.” The horror!
bearjimmy - July 27, 2010 at 4:38 pm
RISD has had a faculty union since the early 1980s, but, this is a non-profit art school, that unlike all the AI campuses, dropped the culinary program years ago (with Johnson & Wales in town it was probably a non brainer). On the other hand, the EDMC’s AI campuses, a branch of Goldman Sachs are specifically aimed at profit for GS’s share holders. Quality of education isn’t the issue, but tuition paying students who are willng to borrow, borrow, borrow is the goal of all EDMC “colleges”, even those with regional accreditation, i.e., the AI’s chains parent school the AI Pittsburgh, which has an online division wherein faculty haven’t met their students, other faculty, nor the supervisors they take orders from.Seems the AFT may not have done their homework before the vote on the Seattle campus. It is difficult to imagine that GS wouldn’t work the backdoor, like they’ve done on Wall Street, and elsewhere.
princeton67 - July 27, 2010 at 8:47 pm
And does that instructor have a recording of the “intimidating” phone calls? or copies of the emails “mandating” meetings? Otherwise, I might actually think “sour grapes”.
mbelvadi - July 28, 2010 at 6:55 am
Duchess_of_malfi, the next time you hear the “not like us” argument, just tell them to look at almost every university in Canada, the overwhelming majority of which have faculty unions. It’s really refreshing to have a contract that forces the administration to leave the faculty alone and not constantly be coming up with some pointless and unproven new professional development activity, or assessment tool, or whatever. That’s just one of many positive effects, but given the complaining I read on this site, apparently a valuable one that American faculty should envy.
duchess_of_malfi - July 28, 2010 at 11:19 am
Mbelvadi, thank you! That information is helpful.