United Academics@@http://www.unitedacademics.org/@@ organizers announced Tuesday they have filed union authorization cards — approved by the signatures of a clear majority of University faculty — with Oregon’s Employment Relations Board.@@http://www.oregon.gov/ERB/@@
This is a key step in the process of establishing a faculty union on campus, which many hope will bring the faculty a stronger voice in the University’s decision-making processes. The union will be formally certified once the ERB verifies that the signed cards actually represent a majority of the faculty.
“A major Association of American Universities@@http://www.aau.edu/@@ member hasn’t unionized in over 20 years,” United Academics representative Deborah Olson@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Deborah+Olson@@ said. “This is a very momentous occasion for us, and we are in awe of all of our colleagues who came forward to sign cards in support.”
Once verified by the ERB, United Academics will begin working to organize the structure of the union, including writing a constitution and bylaws, setting dues and collecting the consensus of the faculty in order to properly represent everyone’s ideas, values and concerns.
“We need to start thinking about reaching out to more people so that we have everybody’s input,” Olson said. “We are going to do a survey of faculty to find out what issues and concerns they want us to bring to the bargaining table, and we want to make sure this is a democratic process.”
As far as leadership for the union, once the constitution and bylaws are written and voted upon by the membership, elections for officers and a negotiation team will be held. United Academics organizer Scott Pratt hopes that the union will bring another level of power to faculty that hasn’t been seen on this campus before.
“The faculty have started to take a stronger role in shared governance and setting priorities for the University,” Pratt said. “My colleagues have decided that it’s time that the faculty have more presence at the table with the administration and Oregon University System board to make decisions.”