Union Power On Campus

Organizing to defend public higher education

Photo by Kim Hughes

Think public education is under assault only in grades K–12? Not so: Higher education is facing major attacks as well. And in Washington and other states, faculty are forming unions to defend themselves.

United Faculty of Washington State, affiliated with—and strongly supported by—NEA, AFT, and their state organizations, is campaigning to represent nearly 8,000 faculty at six public, four-year higher education institutions. Already it’s paying off: In June, full- and part-time faculty at Central Washington University voted nearly 2-1 for United Faculty of Central, which is part of the larger statewide union. The bargaining unit includes 563 faculty, librarians, and coaches.

“This marks a new era,” says Susan Donohoe, president of the United Faculty of Central. “Now we can work with the administration to help improve our wages and working conditions.”

United Faculty of Central (UFC) organized in 1997, but the university refused to recognize it. Then in 2002, years of lobbying by AFT Washington and Washington Education Association (WEA) members culminated in passage of a law requiring four-year higher education institutions to recognize the union if a majority of the faculty votes for representation.

At stake? United support on the kinds of issues that resonate for educators everywhere. In Washington, many now say faculty can show strength in numbers when fighting at the state level for limits on class size and workload. And teachers will gain a stronger voice in academic governance, says Daniel CannCasciato, the UFC treasurer and a former faculty senate chair. “Up until now, we were empowered to recommend. People long ago got tired of that.”

Now, faculty union advocates are spreading the message of “campus clout, statewide strength” at the other five campuses affected by the new law. Elections at Eastern Washington University and Western Washington University will be next. At Eastern, the administration voluntarily recognized United Faculty of Eastern in 1994. Now the union has filed for a certification election under the new bargaining law. Anthony Flinn, president of the union at Eastern, says politicians increasingly think of public colleges and universities as “state assisted” instead of “state supported,” so support for higher education “gets elbowed aside” and schools are left to solicit corporate donors. “Is education a public or a private good?” he asks.

Charles Hasse, WEA president, says it’s a critical question, given the trends in privatization of public education generally. “We need to stop those who would weaken these institutions and raid public funds for private purposes,” he says.    

“While we have strong influence in two-year higher education,” notes

Sandra Schroeder, president of AFT Washington, “we have lacked strength in the four-year arena where the threat of privatization is very real. This challenge will demand a larger and more committed membership.”

Big Sky, Little Budgets

Teacher unity boosts ‘adequate funding’ in Montana.

The legislature is more interested in tax cuts for corporations and high-income residents than in funding public schools. Then they can stand up and say in all honesty, ‘We don’t have the money.’”

So says Eric Feaver, President of MEA-MFT, a merged NEA and AFT affiliate, and the same could be said in many other states.

MEA-MFT has organized a powerful coalition of pro-education groups and school boards to file a lawsuit to make the state government live up to its obligation under the state constitution to provide a quality education for its children. Last spring a state district court judge ruled for the plaintiffs, but the state is appealing.

Similar suits have been filed in 28 other states. Each says the state is violating its constitution by not adequately funding education. Nineteen have met with success in court, although no state has achieved adequate funding yet.

Feaver says the four-year-old NEA-AFT merger in Montana made it possible to build the broad coalition that filed the lawsuit. “Before, the legislature sometimes was able to put a wedge between us,” he says. “Now, we have one staff, one pot of money, one voice.”

In East Helena, music and band teacher Vicki Ries says the state’s negligence is all too clear. Two years ago, she says, the schools lost programs ranging from an advanced math course to part of her band program. A massive community fund-raising effort with bake sales, magazine sales, and a luau helped win back some of the programs, but class size is still up, some programs are still gone, and morale is terrible. “Politicians always claim children are their priority, but they don’t back up their words,” she says.

The lawsuit offers new hope. Feaver expects a state Supreme Court decision by the end of 2004. “We will not lose,” he says.