In support of NTT faculty at Miami University
As the Faculty Alliance of Miami (FAM) moves one step closer to unionization, their administration is engaging in divisive delay tactics by challenging the inclusion of non-tenure track faculty, including instructional faculty and librarians, in their faculty union. The following is our statement of support, which was sent earlier today to Miami’s administrative leadership:
Dear President Crawford, Provost Mullenix, and Board of Trustees:
On behalf of the Ohio University AAUP, we urge that you cease your university’s resistance to the inclusion of non-tenure track faculty in the Faculty Alliance of Miami's proposed bargaining unit. These faculty, who encompass Teaching and Clinical faculty, Visiting Assistant Professors, Librarians, Instructors and research and teaching staff, share common conditions of work with all other full-time faculty. As at Miami, the full-time NTT faculty at our university teach, research, and perform service in ways similar if not identical to T/TT faculty. Claiming otherwise contradicts the plain evidence of the work of all faculty across the NTT and T/TT categories. Ninety percent of all faculty unions at public universities in Ohio include NTT and T/TT faculty within the same bargaining unit. There is a strong likelihood, therefore, that the State Employment Relations Board will side with FAM. We have to ask, then, why Miami University would object to NTT inclusion within the FAM bargaining unit. Is the goal to weaken your faculty’s effort to establish a faculty union?
All faculty regardless of the NTT/T/TT classifications provide essential and indispensable contributions to Miami's core mission of teaching and research. They have an equal right to form a common union to advocate for their shared interests as educators: equitable working conditions and fair pay. We support FAM and call on you to end your attempts to undermine them.
Cease the delay tactics! Allow FAM to cast its vote as a single faculty.
OU-AAUP Executive Committee