Deep in the heart of a right-to-work state, University faculty are in the process of creating a union at the flagship university.
Louisiana is one of 22 right-to-work states, securing the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union, according to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Faculty interested in the potential union attended an organizational session Monday in the School of Music to discuss procedures for the creation of a union, said Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope.
Plans for a union developed during Faculty Senate’s September meeting, and Cope said there has been a surprising level of interest since then.
“Level of concern is much less,” Cope said. “The faculty leadership has made it clear that this is not to set faculty against the administration but to provide administration with some additional tools.”
The plans for a union are developing at the same time the University implemented an exercise on dealing with a $62 million budget cut, which would eliminate 350 faculty positions. Having a union would increase faculty input, especially on issues like the budget situation, the faculty award system and faculty salaries, according to Cope.
He said there will be several meetings over the course of the year, and interested faculty can sign a letter of interest by the end of this academic year.
“Since the announcement [of the potential union], people have been coming out of the woodwork who support it,” said associate librarian and chair of Ad Hoc Committee on Bargaining and Representation Michael Russo.
Over the summer, the Ad Hoc Committee interviewed several potential statewide associations, and the Louisiana Association of Educators expressed the most enthusiasm about the faculty’s challenges at the University, Russo said.
“Right now, the faculty really has no standing in terms of the policies that are affecting them,” Russo said. “They’re just bystanders.”
Russo said they want 70 percent of the faculty on board to create the union.
“There will be a number of things that will be working against us,” Russo said. “The biggest thing is despair. People feel so defeated at this point, and they may say, ‘What’s the point?'”
Russo said he has only heard of one faculty member who is opposed to the faculty union, but some may not buy into the idea because they feel the system is working as it is.
“And some may not want to invest the time in it because they’re more focused on finding another job,” Russo said.
Russo said he encourages faculty who are hanging back on their decision to realize the measure of control a union would provide to faculty members in administrative decisions.
Cope attributes part of the need for a union to Louisiana “working on a small set of laws with a dictatorial governor.” After creating such successful academic programs, Cope said faculty members aren’t going to tolerate the lack of equality.
“This kind of patronizing baby manipulation is simply not going to work anymore given the fact that the University has so many clever people in it,” Cope said.
Several schools across the country have unions, including the universities of Hawaii and Western Illinois, Cope said.
In the state, however, there aren’t many. Russo said he is aware of small union chapters at University of New Orleans and Southeastern University.
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Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]