The
original Faculty Senate Report on Unionization concludes unanimously that the
benefits of unionizations outweighed the costs (see the link to the right). The report identifies the following benefits:
1.
Faculty
under no obligation to join the union or pay dues; however, all those in the
collective bargaining unit—even those who don’t join the union—may vote on
bargained contracts (Note: the decision on which faculty members can vote on bargained
contracts is actually reserved for union members. For example the unions in
Springfield have in their bylaws that you must be a member to vote.)
2.
Collective
bargaining for salaries, intellectual property rights, workload
3.
Faculty
decide the composition of the bargaining unit and issues to be negotiated
4.
Collective
bargaining for employment policies, shared governance, promotion &
compensation policies
5.
Collective
bargaining agreements legally binding for both parties, making that contract
enforceable
6.
Experienced
negotiators whose job it is to negotiate (complementing the MSU faculty who
rotate into leadership positions)
7.
National
databases accessible (sic) for issues as they emerge affecting MSU faculty; helps
faculty track university conditions over time and match changes at MSU with
national trends
8.
Knowledge
of university system for information gathering (what information is necessary,
what form, where it is, persistence in accessing it) • Legal counsel for
professional issues
9.
Reduced
rate for personal counsel
10. Two million dollar liability insurance
for faculty (note: now four million dollars).
11. Voice in public policy—linking MSU
faculty to the efforts of professional lobbyists on behalf of faculty
12. Salary differential between
union/non-union universities (see Appendix III)
13. Consulting source for local
issues—access to national trends
14. In periods of institutional transition
or times of crisis, union provides a stronger faculty voice
The
purpose of this post is to inform you of your benefits under a collective
bargaining agreement, focusing primarily on three issues, based on new evidence
and new academic studies.
Students and Universities Benefit from
Faculty Unionizing
Number
11 on the list above is a notation that the university is likely to benefit from
lobbying efforts provided by MSU FA affiliation with our national union--NEA in
Washington, D.C. and state affiliation with MNEA in Jefferson City. In addition, a new study detailed recently
published by the Chronicle of Higher Education shows that:
An unusual
new study of the effects of faculty unionization on public universities—rather
than on just faculty members themselves—reaches
the controversial conclusion that such institutions generally become more
efficient and effective when their professors form collective-bargaining units (emphasis
added).
How
exactly does unionization benefit the university and, by extension, its
students? “Unionization contributes to
lower budgets, higher graduation rates, and a greater number of degrees and
completions," asserts the author in the Chronicle article.
These
positive results primarily come about because unionized Universities spend 2 to
3 percent more of their budget on instruction and less on administration. As a
result, student success rate, “as measured by the share of students who
graduate within six years, earn degrees, or complete some other academic
program” improves at unionized Universities.
Of
course, improving funding for the core mission of MSU, as noted in an earlier
post to this blog, is one of the major goals of the MSU Faculty Association as
is improving student learning and success.
Faculty also Benefit from Unionizing
You
will notice that a number of the “Pros” listed above speak directly to how
faculty benefit from unionizing. A
recent academic paper, also highlighted in a Chronicle of Higher Education article, further provides evidence on
exactly how faculty benefit.
When faculty
members discuss unionizing, the debate tends to revolve around the question of
whether so banding together gives them more say over their college's affairs or
actually leaves them worse off, by hurting their ability to work cooperatively
with their institution's administration. A
new study of public four-year colleges concludes that unionizing appears to
give faculty members considerably more clout in some key areas and does not
seem to do them much harm (emphasis added).
That
is, unionizing either improves the faculty position on campus or has no
negative impact. In what areas, exactly,
are improvements found? Faculty
influence improves the following:
·
Faculty
Salary Scales
·
Individual
Faculty Salaries
·
Appointments
of Academic Department Heads
·
Appointments
of members of University committees
·
The
Institution’s Curriculum
·
Faculty
Teaching Loads
Interestingly,
the Chronicle article also discusses concerns voiced by many skeptics of
unionizing in higher education including that faculty unions have limited power
due to their inability to strike; unions create both an adversarial
relationship with the administration and a faculty less willing to be involved
in shared governance. Many of these concerns
were also listed as “cons” in the MSU Faculty Senate report referenced above.
The authors’ of the study “did not find
anything in their study results to affirm such fears and criticisms.”
Updated Data on Faculty Salaries
between Unionized and Non-Unionized Universities
The
Faculty Senate Report on Unionization included data on salary differentials
between faculty by discipline at unionized and non-unionized universities. That data was from academic year
2008-2009. Included in this
link is an update from the same source for academic year 2011-2012 (the
full report is in a link to the right).
Note that these are differences in means by discipline and as the table
below illustrates, some disciplines have higher means on unionized as compared
to non-unionized universities while for a few disciplines just the opposite is true. Overall, however, unionized faculty have
average salaries that are $2,668 (3.65%) higher than non-unionized faculty.
Interested
readers should note that there is a large and diverse set of published
literature that addresses the impact that unionization has on average faculty
salaries at an institution. In addition
to discipline, other variables found to have an impact on results include cost
of living, rank, and state specific effects.
Although that literature often finds positive impacts of unionization on
faculty salaries controlling for these other factors, such is not always the
case. For a discussion see the linked Chronicle of Higher Education report.
