A fledgling union representing part-time faculty members at Suffolk University has scored what its leaders are trumpeting as a major organizing victory, by enlisting the support of nearly 58 percent of part-time instructors who work on the Massachusetts campus. Under the terms of the union’s first contract, signed last spring, the union — the Suffolk Affiliated Faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors — needed to recruit at least 55 percent of part-time faculty members by today if it was to have the power to charge those who had not joined a fee to cover the costs of representing them. As of early September, the union had enlisted just 17 percent of part-timers, giving rise to worries that it would be unable to meet the 55-percent threshold in time.
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2 Responses to Part-Time Instructors Declare Big Organizing Victory at Suffolk U.
willynilly - December 1, 2009 at 7:37 pm
They think it is a victory now. Within five years they will be discussing privately what a curse this initiative has become. The entire atmosphere at the institution will become toxic, the union will have to fight for every one inch gain, if any. The length of time of negotiations will become burdensome. The toll on people and institutional resourses will be incaluable and the ultimate ends will never, in any way, justify the means. The union will totally divide the house – even among the union members themselves, who will become very disillusioned over the fact that 5-6 elected union faculty will be making decisions with which the majority of faculty members are likely to disagree. The only winner here is the Union who will take the hard earned wages of faculty as ever increasing dues while delivering only a small sliver of all the huge claims they promised at the time of organization. Yes, still today as we approach 2010 “A fool and his money are soon parted” I feel sorry for the faculty fools who worked to put this losing strategy in place. Never forget that when this ill-advised venture goes south, this is what you wanted, this is what you worked hard to get, it is all yours so suffer in silence.
gorwell - December 2, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Must be a curse for willynilly to be able to predict the future so accuratley. This person must be a real national asset who should be using their god given talent to save our country, no even better the planet