As many of the University’s faculty have banded together to create the LSUnited faculty union to spike faculty representation for a louder voice in making University decisions, members are experiencing turbulence on the administrators’ end of the prospect.
LSUnited members must pay fees as part of their national membership with the National Education Association and their state membership with the Louisiana Association of Educators, along with local dues for the LSUnited chapter.
Fees vary depending on how much money members make annually but are around $445 for members earning $92,750 and more.
Chancellor Michael Martin has denied LSUnited’s request to pay those fees from payroll deductions, and LSUnited is now turning to the LSU System Board of Supervisors in a debate over a system policy — Permanent Memorandum 65 — payroll deduction authorization.
Michael Russo, LSUnited spokesman, said PM 65 does not grant the University authority to ignore it, but the University is disregarding the policy in the case of LSUnited. If the chancellor were to give LSUnited the payroll deduction, it would signify the administration’s acknowledgment of its existence, Russo said.
In its appeal to the System, LSUnited wrote that when the chancellor denied its payroll deduction request, no written policy was cited as reason for the rejection.
PM 65 itself says employees may be solicited for payroll deduction only “upon written authorization from the Chancellor of the campus on which the solicitation is to cooperation.”
Russo said LSUnited grew out of a Faculty Senate committee last year, when they concluded that faculty couldn’t have “meaningful representation without contract basis in get.”
But Martin maintained that there is “no evidence” of faculty unions advancing rights for faculty and that Louisiana is a right-to-work state, not a union state.
Russo said a large, well-organized group of people can confront Louisiana’s barriers, but the Faculty Senate is not one of those groups.
“The belief that the Faculty Senate can represent faculty is a misunderstanding of where authority resides,” Russo said. “I daresay it doesn’t reside with the chancellor. It resides at the state anti-bureaucracy.”
Russo said payroll deductions could spread payment periods over nine or 12 months, making it easier for faculty to pay.
“The idea of a payroll deduction is to make it convenient for the members,” Russo said.
Martin pointed to other avenues people can use to avoid this “bureaucracy,” like PayPal accounts and debit cards.
The payroll deduction decision now lies with the LSU System Board of Supervisors, though it is unclear when the board will address the decision. Charles Zewe, vice president of communications and external affairs for the Board of Supervisors, said the agenda for the next meeting has not yet been set.
Martin said he thinks the Board of Supervisors is not interested in adding bureaucracy to the University.
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]