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History
of Our Union
“Merry
Xmas: You’re Fired”
In January of 1972, two-weeks after Christmas,
university administrators stunned the Wayne community by announcing
the imminent layoff of nearly 300 non-tenured faculty and academic
staff. The Administration cited a looming financial crisis as justification
for these draconian cuts.
At the time, there was no union to represent the needs and interests
of Wayne State’s academic employees. That would soon change,
however, as the Administration’s unilateral decision to solve
the budget crisis at the expense of faculty and academic staff galvanized
support for union representation.
Before the Union
Administrators left to their own devices are
often prone to a style of unilateral action that mocks traditional
norms of collegial governance. Before the union, there was no collective
voice that could effectively challenge the top-down pronouncements
of these wayward administrators.
With no university-wide standards or due process for making decisions
concerning tenure and promotion, deans and department chairs were
left to unilaterally impose whatever process suited them, case by
case. Salary decisions were also erratic and arbitrary in many areas
of the university. Since there was no public posting of raises or
salaries, a department chair could favor his/her allies while concealing
patterns of racial and gender discrimination.
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It was in this context that a group of faculty
and academic staff had already begun to circulate a petition in
1970 calling for union organization, citing low salaries, the lack
of due process, and the administration’s disregard for the
University Council (as the Academic Senate was then known).
Two years later, the Administration’s
sudden announcement of mass layoffs gave this organizing drive a
special urgency. Confronted by a shortfall in state funding, acting
President George Gullen sent termination letters to 282 faculty
and academic staff whose term contracts ended in June, 1972. This
was done without formally consulting academic departments or the
University Council, and without reviewing individual cases. Among
those who received termination letters were a number of faculty
who had just been nominated for tenure in their departments.
This glaring lack of equity and due process created a firestorm
of criticism, eventually leading to a vote of censure by the chairs
of the College of Liberal Arts. Censure, however, was an extraordinary
measure. As such, it was no more effective than the University Council/Academic
Senate in correcting bad policy. Then as now, administrators following
the path of least resistance often discounted such criticism as
merely “advisory.”
The Vote
Seeking a “collective voice” that could effectively
shape personnel policy, Wayne’s faculty and academic staff
petitioned the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) to
conduct an election on union representation. Voting to determine
whether a majority favored collective bargaining was delayed until
March of 1972 as MERC decided two key issues: first, who should
be in the bargaining unit and eligible to vote, and second, which
of several unions competing for support should be allowed on the
ballot.
As for the first issue, the Administration argued that academic
staff should be excluded from the bargaining unit and union representation.
This interest in dividing academic staff from faculty has remained
a perennial with administrators who would rather deal with two weakened
units than a unified organization representing all academic professionals
on campus. MERC rejected this argument for balkanizing academic
personnel.
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Regarding the second issue, MERC eventually put three unions on
the ballot. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) had launched
the organizing drive at Wayne and was the first union to collect
the signatures required for ballot status. Prompted by the AFT’s
initiative, two other organizations had joined the fray and eventually
won a place on the ballot: the American Association of University
Professors (AAUP), which had previously organized a non-bargaining
chapter at WSU and now petitioned for ballot status as a union;
and the Michigan Education Association (MEA). In contrast to the
AFT, neither the AAUP nor the MEA was affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
When the MERC vote was held in March of 1972, two months after President
Gullen’s announcement of mass layoffs, the result was an overwhelming
mandate for collective bargaining: of 1,218 ballots counted, 1,030
faculty and academic staff— 85% of those voting and 66% of
the total eligible to vote— cast a ballot for one of the three
unions competing for support. The “no union” tally was
a mere 188 votes, just 15% of the uncontested ballots and only 12%
of all faculty and academic staff.
While the pro-union vote was overwhelming in
the March election, none of the competing unions gained an outright
majority. The AFT and the AAUP were first and second, with 554 and
331 votes respectively, and these two unions went head-to-head in
a run-off election held that April. The outcome was a narrow victory
for the AAUP, which out-polled the AFT by just 18 votes (596-578).
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Under state laws that require an employer to
negotiate with a union certified by such a majority vote, administrators
could no longer ignore faculty and academic staff when it came to
personnel policy. For the next 25 years, the AAUP negotiated as
an independent union, calling on support from AFL-CIO unions in
moments of crisis, but otherwise holding itself aloof from the rest
of the labor movement. In 1998, this isolation ended with a 2-1
membership vote in favor of joint affiliation with the AFT.
Then and Now
Over the decades, the AAUP-AFT has fought for the
things that were so lacking before 1972: due process, standard criteria,
equity, decent salaries, and collegial governance that gives faculty
and academic staff a genuine voice in academic affairs. There is
certainly much more to be done, especially as some administrators
promote a “market-driven” model of higher education
that diminishes the role of tenured faculty and academic staff in
favor of underpaid adjuncts and unrepresented contract personnel.
Collegial governance is also under attack in universities across
the country, including Wayne State.
Even so, whether it is tenure, promotion, selective salaries, or
a host of other issues, the collective bargaining agreement calls
for elected peer committees and due-process procedures that represent
our last, best defense against mismanagement and unilateral decision
making. (For a brief review of these contract provisions, see “Things
Worth Knowing.
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