Inside Higher Ed: Union Win at Oregon
University of Oregon faculty members may have a union soon, after a group representing faculty members at the university filed about 1,100 signed authorization cards with the state’s Employment Relations Board Tuesday. Officials at United Academics, an organization representing tenure-track, non-tenure-track and research professors, said that the number represented a majority of the institution’s approximately 2,000 faculty members.
The university has until April 4 to object to the petition for unionization, according to an official at the Employment Relations Board. Oregon is a state where no election is required as long as a certified majority of the employees in the proposed unit file cards. A challenge could theoretically come if 30 percent of the faculty members petition for an election, but no organizing has taken place for such a challenge.
The now-likely formation of the faculty union at Oregon would be a major victory for academic labor, which has struggled in recent years to organize at research universities. “It shows that faculty members are increasingly frustrated at the increased corporatization of research universities,” said Jack Nightingale, associate director for higher education organizing at the American Federation of Teachers. He said the effort to organize at Oregon was about two years old, with the AFT working with the American Association of University Professors and local faculty members.
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/03/15/university-oregon-faculty-takes-step-toward-unionizing#ixzz1pcyNEbPh
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