Union Arm of AAUP Blasts Its Handling of Key Executive Changes

by E Wayne Ross on June 13, 2011

The Chronicle: Union Arm of AAUP Blasts Its Handling of Key Executive Changes

The American Association of University Professors’ umbrella organization for unionized local affiliates has adopted a resolution condemning how the group’s leadership went about ousting the AAUP’s general secretary, Gary Rhoades, and protesting that the AAUP’s executive committee and its president, Cary Nelson, are usurping the powers of its national leadership council.

The resolution, overwhelmingly passed by the AAUP’s Collective Bargaining Congress late Thursday during the organization’s annual conference here, also condemns how Mr. Nelson has gone about handling the process of replacing the director of the AAUP’s department of organizing and services following a decision by the staff member in that position, Mike Mauer, to step down. Mr. Nelson defied the wishes of the leadership of the Collective Bargaining Congress in appointing a staff member to the search committee that he established to fill the position.