Category Archives: Collective Bargaining

by | April 13, 2011 · 12:21 pm

Er, just in case you missed it…

Folks, this email from Cliff, originally a memo from State APSCUF President Hicks, was in your email Monday.  Given the lack of buzz it generated, I figure some of you just missed it, so I’m reposting it here. I frankly can’t understand why there’s not more vocal anger at this announcement.  If you don’t believe the Chancellor really means the threat on our campus, then you should be furious at him for lobbing this kind of grenade into contract negotiations while we’re supposed to be fighting side-by-side for our budgetary lives in the Legislature.  If you do believe he really means it, you should be fighting like all bloody hell to save the jobs of your sisters and brothers, if not your own.  –Seth
**********************
Please forward this email to all members.  Steve

Colleagues,

We knew it was coming, but that still did not soften the blow last Friday when, at the negotiations table, the Chancellor’s Office confirmed the rumor that all fourteen of our universities would be sending out retrenchment notices for the 2012-13 academic year.

One might have reasonably expected that, given the context of Governor Corbett’s budget cuts and the need for all in our system to work together, that the Chancellor might, at least, delay this divisive and dispiriting initiative until the fog of the budget battle had cleared.   This would have been the rational path, the politically astute path, and the empathetic path for our students and the faculty.   They have, instead, moved precipitously.
Fortunately, our Association negotiated a CBA that protects us from impetuous administrative action.  The retrenchment notices do not mean that there will, necessarily, be retrenchment.  Under both Article 29 of our collective bargaining agreement and PASSHE’s internal guidelines, campus administrations (and the Office of the Chancellor [OOC]) are to begin the process by notifying the union of “any changes, including those involving curriculum and programs, which will lead to retrenchment.”  These notices fulfill these requirements.  We have been notified as to the possibility of retrenchment.

Thus, colleagues, we must fight on another front.  Amid the budget battle and negotiations, both on your campus and in Harrisburg, we will fight on another front.  There is no time to be panicked or discouraged.  Our state meet and discuss teams and your local meet and discuss teams are ready for these battles.  Our staff is ready.

With record enrollments for thirteen years, and years of budget surpluses, the universities are in a poor position to argue very vehemently that they need fewer faculty.  It belies logic and calculation.  The faculty is at the core of any serious academic mission, and we will never let them forget it.

We must remain diligent, steadfast, and united.  We will fight any attempt to retrench faculty with all the tools at our disposal, but our most effective resource continues to be our ability to stand together with our students in support of quality public higher education.  And, that we will do.

In Solidarity,

Steve

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Filed under APSCUF, Budget, Collective Bargaining, Contract Negotiations, Office of the Chancellor, PASSHE, Retrenchment, West Chester University

by | April 12, 2011 · 11:13 am

Common ground is fine, but it doesn’t guarantee fairness

By now you’ve probably seen the news out of State APSCUF of management’s announcement that they plan to issue retrenchment letters on all fourteen PASSHE campuses for the 2012-13 school year.

We’ll have plenty more to say about the specifics of that announcement and how we respond to it in the near future; it wasn’t entirely unexpected, but neither do we take it as anything other than hostile.

In the meantime, this morning’s Inside Higher Education features an article on a labor conference last week at which faculty union leaders and university managers got together to talk about how to find common ground from which to advance the mutual interests of universities and systems.

Ironically, the article mentions Pennsylvania specifically as an example of a place where faculty and management ought to fighting together against outrageous budget proposals–and it published one day after management announced that they may retrench faculty all across the system.

Knowing that managers in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and other places actually respect the faculty in their states made this announcement out of PASSHE even that much more toxic.  At a time when we should all be fighting desperately to win over legislators who can protect our budget, and we’re seeing examples of state system managers doing just that, instead the Office of the Chancellor (OOC) is firing shots across the bow.

So what does this mean for you as WCU faculty?  A few things:

1. If you haven’t already written letters and made phone calls to your legislators about the budget, do it NOW.  Our campus management has been with us on these efforts, but the OOC just isn’t.  Don’t wait around for PASSHE to do its thing–do it for them.

2.  Go to rallies and show your face: April 26 in Harrisburg; April 27 at the Courthouse in downtown West Chester; May 3 in Harrisburg.

3.  Continue to get ready for what now appears to be an even nastier negotiations season than we already expected.  Make sure your APSCUF reps know you to find you off-campus.  Try to put a little money aside in case of a job action.  Read the emails that come from State and Local APSCUF because they have information in them you need to know.

One last thing–it’s tempting to be (some combination of) scared, frustrated, and angry at the current state of affairs in our system.  Obviously I can’t dictate your emotional reactions, but I’ll make this pitch (which some of you have heard me say before).  In difficult times, the urge to panic, the urge to withdraw, and the urge to organize/mobilize are exactly the same.  MOBILIZE!  It’s a much healthier response.

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Filed under Advocacy, APSCUF, Budget, Collective Bargaining, Contract Negotiations, Inside Higher Ed, PASSHE, Public education, Rally, Tom Corbett, Tuition increase, West Chester University

by | April 8, 2011 · 11:12 am

Information about another rally

From Kevin Mahoney at the KUXchange, news about a rally April 26 in Harrisburg.  This one merges issues of higher ed, K-12 ed, public and private sector unions.  Details about times/speakers/sponsors forthcoming.

For any student readers or community members–if you’re interested in co-sponsoring this rally, you can use the flyer that’s linked in the post and add your organization’s name and contact info.  Let me (Seth) know if you do this, so I can tell my colleague who designed the flyer to add you to the sponsor list.

Also, Kevin has designed and put up for sale t-shirts in support of the event.  As always, Kevin uses proceeds to support pro-education, pro-student, pro-workers-rights efforts.

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Filed under Advocacy, APSCUF, Budget, Collective Bargaining, Communities, free speech, K-12 Education, Kutztown University, PASSHE, Public education, Rally, Student activism, Tom Corbett, Tuition increase, University of Pittsburgh, West Chester University

by | March 28, 2011 · 5:00 pm

Of academics, politics, free speech, and fishing

[WARNING: Partisan alert!  If you don’t believe the Republican party is more avidly squelching academic political activity than the Dems are, you won’t like some of these assertions….  –Seth]

If any of you haven’t yet been following the story out of Wisconsin of Professor William Cronon, you should.  An article in this morning’s (Mon 3/28) Inside Higher Ed provides a solid account.

Kevin Mahoney at the KUXchange does an excellent job of contextualizing the issue and explaining its relevance to our current situation here in PA.  He concludes:

Cronon’s case is important because i[t] indicates the length to which this new breed of Republican will go to ensure compliance and squash dissent.  One more reason these folks are going after tenure.  After all, the original purpose of tenure was to ensure that the government or an institution could not silence unpopular arguments.  It was a protection against the kind of tyranny we are seeing in Wisconsin.

Tom Corbett hasn’t directly named public unions or university faculty as enemies of the state in the way that the Walkerites in Wisconsin have, but his attack on our budget couldn’t be more clear evidence that he’s perfectly willing to destroy us.

Think about it this way; in the face of pretty strong response publicly against his PASSHE budget proposal, Corbett’s response has been (predictably) along the lines of, “Well, this was just an opening in what I know will be a negotiation.”

That would sound reasonable, except for one thing.  You should NEVER offer a proposal you’re not prepared to live with.  What would have happened, does the Governor think, had we not responded so quickly and strongly?  What would have happened if the citizens of PA had said, “OK, you’re right, Tom!  Let’s smash ’em up!”

Anyway, more germane to the Cronon case, what we’re seeing around the country right now is an all-out effort to squelch shared governance and academic participation in our national and state politics.  The attempts at suppression don’t just cross campus boundaries but sit squarely on both sides of the boundaries.

Therefore, as a practical matter, I very, very strongly recommend a couple of things–

1.  While the WCU policy on email/internet usage doesn’t specifically preclude using your WCU email for political purposes, it seems like a good idea not to–especially given that President Weisenstein made a point of saying so (and saying not to use WCU letterhead for correspondence with government officials) on his Budget Update page.

2.  Start an account with a commercial service; APSCUF will need you to have one anyway if you don’t already.  Otherwise, as we move into preparations for our contract expiration, you’ll be uninformed.  We simply won’t send out organizational messages or updates on negotiations to campus email addresses; this shouldn’t be news to anybody on either side :).  I recommend Gmail, for a bunch of reasons I can explain if you care.

In the end, I think the law is on Professor Cronon’s side, as it would be on ours should somebody come (metaphorically, I hope) knocking at my door to complain about this blog or my personal one.

But why tempt fate?  Or, as I wrote in an email exchange about Cronon with a colleague the other day, who the hell has time to fool with that kind of challenge when we’ve got actual work to do?

 

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Filed under Advocacy, APSCUF, Budget, Collective Bargaining, free speech, Inside Higher Education, Kutztown University, PASSHE, Tom Corbett, University of Wisconsin, West Chester University, William Cronon

by | March 27, 2011 · 12:34 pm

NEA voices support for restoring PASSHE budget

From the State APSCUF blog, this resolution of support from the NEA Council on Higher Education:

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania’s students contribute thousands of dollars a year to the state and local economies, and approximately 70 percent of graduates of Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities remain in the state. They provide the workforce that sustains the state economy.

WHEREAS, On March 8, 2011, Gov. Tom Corbett introduced his first state budget proposal, which would cut state funding to Pennsylvania’s community colleges, public colleges and universities, and state-related universities by more than 50%. When combined with the reduction in federal funding, community colleges will see a 10% decrease in funding, the State System of Higher Education’s budget will be reduced by 54%, and state-related universities’ budgets will be decreased 51%. Additionally, the governor’s budget proposal included a 1.9% cut to Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency grants.

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania already has some of the highest tuition rates for public colleges and universities of any state in the country, while state funding rates for higher education are among the lowest in the country. If the final state budget includes the governor’s proposed cuts to higher education, students across Pennsylvania can expect:

• Major increases in tuition and fees

• Larger class sizes

• Fewer course offerings

• Greater student loan debt

• Fewer loan and grant opportunities

• Fewer institutions due to the closing of campuses

WHEREAS, large tuition increases and increasing loan debts will make it even more difficult for these students to continue to afford college and could discourage interested students from applying in the future. Larger class sizes and program cuts will make it difficult for students to obtain a quality education in a timely manner.

Therefore, we resolve to support the students of Pennsylvania and call on members of the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives to reject these cuts to higher education. We urge them to continue to fund at prior levels community colleges, state colleges and universities, and the state-related universities in order to continue to provide a quality education for all of Pennsylvania’s students.

Thanks, NEA, for the support and for the smart articulation of the issues.

 

 

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Filed under Advocacy, APSCUF, Budget, Collective Bargaining, National Education Association, Tom Corbett

by | March 22, 2011 · 9:50 am

The kind of Orwellian logic we’re up against

I know not all of you colleagues share my exact political affiliations/inclinations, so I’ll preemptively apologize for what I expect might be a somewhat partisan tone here…

From this morning’s (3/22) Inside Higher Education comes an article describing the Ohio Governor’s new plan to increase state university faculty teaching loads by one course every two years.  The idea, says Governor Kasich’s office, is to save (an unannounced and as of yet seemingly uncalculated amount of) money.

So what’s the problem here?  One course every two years isn’t that big a deal, right?

For someone like me, who was markedly less happy when I had reassign time for administrative work than I am when I teach a full load, the change isn’t a bad idea–IF it comes along with an acknowledgement that there’s a balance to be struck.  That is, you can’t expect faculty to teach more, and to research more, and to do more service, all without any more support or compensation.  Every aspect of the job will suffer if those demands are allowed to increase unchecked.

Further, according to the article, the proposal (as of now, and to be sure it still seems half-baked) will take very little account of faculty input; several Ohio AAUP reps and officers make the point that nobody in the Governor’s office has even begun to talking to faculty about how they might make this work.

And that’s where the Orwell button gets pushed…

Just a few weeks ago, a bill (originally SB5–if you want to read any of this news about it, that’s what I’d search for) passed and became law, that (among many other nasty provisions) redefines public university faculty as managers under the Yeshiva SupCt decision.  Briefly, the SupCt held that because faculty (the decision was limited to private university faculty–many of us have been wondering for years when this leap would happen) are involved in decision-making that effects the governance of their campuses, they’re legally doing management work and are therefore excluded from collective bargaining rights.

So are you starting to see the problem here?  Just a couple of weeks ago, OH public university faculty had so much influence over policy and governance that they’re managers.  Now, when the Governor wants to save a few (more) bucks on the backs of people who actually work for a living, he pushes a policy the direct effects of which squarely fall on the one group he has no intention of involving in the decision.

Huh?  Which one is it, Governor Kasich?  Either your faculty have management authority or they don’t.

The reason I’m talking about this here is that I won’t be the least bit surprised, if that provision of the OH law holds up to what I expect is an inevitable court battle, when a similar proposal comes to PA.  We need to be ready for it.  How will we respond?

 

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Filed under APSCUF, Collective Bargaining, Inside Higher Education, Ohio SB5, PASSHE, Yeshiva decision

by | March 21, 2011 · 4:31 pm

Statewide APSCUF Press Release: Read this ASAP

Forwarded from the State APSCUF blog:

http://apscuf.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/apscuf-agrees-to-negotiate-wage-freeze/

My quick summary: state leadership is announcing our intention to agree to a wage freeze for next year, in conjunction with wage freezes for managers/administrators and a restoration of funding for the system.

I, quite frankly, was hoping that we’d announce exactly this.  It’s the right thing to do, and should announce loudly and clearly to legislators (and to students, families, and other taxpayers) that the faculty aren’t putting ourselves and our own economic interests above everyone else’s.

Get it, Governor?  Get it, legislators?  Please show us that you’re listening.  And hearing.  And caring.  Anybody who dismisses this move as some kind of cynical ploy is only demonstrating how little he/she cares about the Commonwealth and democracy.

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Filed under APSCUF, Budget, Collective Bargaining, PASSHE, Tom Corbett

by | March 18, 2011 · 2:07 pm

WCU’s Mark Rimple responds to Corbett’s budget proposal

On Wednesday, I posted the link to an interview with Corbett’s Budget Director Charles Zogby on Harrisburg radio station WITF.  If you missed it, you can read the article here. 

Our colleague Mark Rimple (College of VPA, APSCUF Corresponding Secretary) responded with a post that’s worth spreading far and wide.  Thank you, Mark, for saying something that needed to be said.  Now it needs to be heard.  Let’s all do our part to make it so. 

Wednesday, 16 March 2011 11:43 posted by Mark RImple

Clearly it’s Zogby and Corbett who have been living under a rock.

As a faculty member in a PASSHE school, I can attest to the continual budget-cutting under our previous governor. The mantra of the last five or more years has been “do more with less”. We have. We are as lean and efficient as it is possible to be, and our education is much more affordable than our private peer institutions.

Posters who like to denigrate the State System Schools have obviously not set foot in one to observe the hard work and dedication of our faculty, staff, and students, and have no idea how much preparation and research we put into our jobs and courses.

It’s pretty easy to speak from the armchair, without actual facts in hand. Just remember you’re flippantly condemning many families (of faculty and parents of students currently in the system) to economic ruin by doing so.

Times have changed, Gov. Corbett, since you went to school, and mostly for the good. Tenure and Promotion in Higher Ed in the good old days were often done largely in the back room, not the rigorous processes of peer review we endure now. Our searches for faculty bring in talent from across the nation and the world, exposing our students to a broad range of thinking and expertise.

Sadly, it’s the price that’s gone up, thanks to a slowly dwindling state appropriation.

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Filed under Budget, Collective Bargaining, PASSHE, Tom Corbett, Tuition increase

by | March 16, 2011 · 11:07 am

Links for Tues 3/15

Links for Tues 3/15 (and overnight):

Penn State University’s President Responds to Budget Cut Proposal

Pennsylvania’s Corbett Expands Conservative War on the Middle Class

Assault on Collective Bargaining Illegal, Says International Labor Rights Group

Corbett’s Unreal Budget for Higher Education

Just as a reminder, if you want links posted, send them to Seth.  It’s helpful if you can include the headline or Title Bar for the page.

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Filed under Budget, Collective Bargaining, Links, Tom Corbett, Tuition increase, Uncategorized