The Experience of Engineering Faculty at Unionized Campuses in Ohio

Presentation video

Q&A Summary from our April 27, 2023 forum:

Panelists

Kelly Cohen, University of Cincinnati

Alan Atalah, Bowling Green State University

Jorge Gatica, Cleveland State University

Opening presentation by

Brandon Kendhammer, Ohio University

When administration denies a request by the union, what can the union do? What leverage does it have?

Alan (BGSU): This is part of a negotiation. Leverage is impossible without a union in the first place. Union guarantees a stronger collective representation. Stronger than individual. Also: arbitration is an option.

Kelly (UC): Reasons, justifications, arguments are provided better by a collective body. Leverage is much stronger and more implementable as a collective.  Administration has to come to the table to negotiation, it’s part of the contract. 

What about strikes? In addition to dues, what other obligations/commitments does a union ask of its members?

Kendhammer (OU): None of the three universities represented by our panelists have ever gone on strike.

Alan (BGSU): Union dues are optional, according to Ohio law. However, isn’t it in every member’s self-interest to equitably support the union financially?

Jorge (CSU): Whether you pay or not (0.9% of salary), collective bargaining unit represents you. At CSU, arbitration was necessary recently and that meant a lawyer was needed.  Without the financial resources of the union, that would have been impossible to budget.

Kelly (UC): Union also provides help with private or personal grievance issues by making the process clear. This provides a lot of support and peace of mind.

What are negative aspects of having a union?

Kelly (UC): Paying dues (laughs).

Alan (BGSU): Dynamics between administration and union can be strained sometimes, true. But it is also in the interest of the union to have good relations with administration. Advice is to find mutually agreeable terms. Don’t create lose-lose situation.

Jorge (CSU): Faculty leaders volunteer a lot of time in contract negotiations.  For example, I spent 300 hours into the last negotiations over a summer. This doesn’t always count as service.  Our most recent contract now counts some of this work for the union as official service.  (BGSU counts union work as service too).

Health care. In the private sector, premiums seem much less.  Premiums are now $900 per month at OU.

Alan (BGSU): Health insurance rates go up with the market. BGSU has the same options/plans as before the union. But market price increase is part of the negotiation with the union. 

Audience comment: At OU, the administration passes down a price without encountering contrary incentives, and the increase happens without any input. Only potential input from faculty is the distribution of the increase among different salary levels.

Kelly (UC): At UC, health care cost is set as a percentage of salary.  The percentage of salary hasn’t increased at UC in six years despite the bad market situation re health insurance.  During the last contract negotiation, the administration wanted to increase employee premiums, but the union prevented this.  This was one of the big successes of the last contract negotiation. 

College and department relations.  How did the relationship between faculty and department chairs or Deans change with unionization?

Alan (BGSU): Some chairs act arrogantly qua “the management” and “you are labor.” Not smart culture on part of chair, for sure. Unionization does not per se change the “culture” of individual units; but maybe in the long run can for the better. But a bad culture in a certain unit is not created or fixed by a union.  That culture is from simply ignoring common goals and ends.

Kelly (UC): Decent compensation for chair/academic heads ensures fair balance.  We want to recruit motivated individuals for chair, and there should be some compensation to motivate this. Union plays a role in determining these salaries and bonuses too.

Kelly (UC): Intradepartmental relations did not get strained once unionization happened. Transparency and fairness remain the central virtues, and the union helped make some of these processes more transparent, especially regarding budget issues.

How does the union help with retaining faculty or stabilizing faculty-student ratios?

Jorge (CSU): The union helps maintain percentage of full time faculty in a unit through negotiations on workload.  Faculty-student ratios are discussed in our negotiations. If a department needs more faculty to cover classes, the union can help negotiate that.