BOWLING GREEN - Faculty members at Bowling Green State University may decide before the end of the semester whether they want to be represented by a union.
Members of the BGSU Faculty Association yesterday showed up outside University President Carol Cartwright's office to deliver a copy of the collective bargaining election petition they filed Wednesday with the State Employment Relations Board.
The group, a chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said 469 full-time faculty members - well over half the 800-plus tenured and nontenured faculty members - signed authorization cards for a union election.
David Jackson, president of the group, said collective bargaining would give faculty a greater voice in the "shared governance" of the university as well as the ability to negotiate a fair contract.
While Mr. Jackson did not get to speak with Ms. Cartwright directly, the administration issued a statement yesterday saying it did not support the unionization effort but looked forward "to the conversation that will now take place."
"The administration believes that a faculty union will not cause more students to enroll at BGSU; it will not advance the university's academic reputation; it will not attract research funding nor will it enlarge the university's state share of instruction," the statement read.Mr. Jackson, an associate political science professor, insisted faculty share a common interest with the administration, "which is the success of our students."
He said pay increases were not the driving force for the attempt to organize a union, but pointed out that faculty salaries have been frozen and members pay a higher share of their health care.
"We understand economic times are tough for Ohio families because we are Ohio families, and we face the same challenges that everybody else faces in our state," Mr. Jackson said. "While BGSU faculty salaries have languished near the bottom of Ohio universities, we have seen the salaries of central administration continue to go up and up. Enough is enough."
If successful in getting SERB to hold a secret ballot election on collective bargaining, it would be the third time in recent memory that an attempt has been made to unionize BGSU faculty.
Union elections failed in 1979 and 1994, Mr. Jackson said, adding that the large number of faculty who agreed to sign authorization cards indicates the outcome could be different this time. "The case that we're making is not an adversarial case, and it's not a reaction to circumstances necessarily," he said. "It's the idea that it's necessary for the faculty to have a permanent, strong, legally backed-up voice and a place at the table."
Geoff Howes, a professor of German, Russian, and East Asian languages and vice president of the faculty association, was on the faculty in 1994 and said the organizing attempt at that time grew out of a cut in summer pay and general dissatisfaction with Paul Olscamp's administration.
"We don't have a particular beef with this administration," Mr. Howes said. "It's the system we all inherited that needs to be improved."
Contact Jennifer Feehan at:
jfeehan@theblade.com
or 419-724-6129.
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