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Unionization In
The Classroom: GW's Response To Organizing Part-Time Faculty
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EVENTS
THAT LED TO THE DIRECTION OF AN ELECTION ON WHETHER PART-TIME FACULTY
SHOULD BE REPRESENTED BY LOCAL 500 SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL
UNION (printer-friendly version)
May 14, 2004
The
Service Employees first filed a petition with the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) on March 8, 2004, seeking to represent part-time
and regular part-time faculty. The University worked with the NLRB
to determine whether the union had the required showing of support
for the proposed unit in order to hold an election. Following a
review of the relevant data, the NLRB informed the union that it
would dismiss the petition because the petition did not have the
support of at least 30 percent of the part-time faculty, as required
by federal labor law. Instead, the union withdrew that petition
and filed a second petition that purported to clarify the unit.
The NLRB again agreed and determined that despite the unions
efforts, there was not a sufficient showing of interest in the University
community to support the petition for an election under NLRB guidelines.
The union withdrew its petition for the second time.
The NLRBs decision on the first two petitions was based on
the fact that University records demonstrated that there are in
excess of 1,500 part-time faculty employed at the University during
an academic year, contrary to the unions assertion that there
are only approximately 1,100.** Despite the unions continued
insistence that the University was padding the list
and putting up roadblocks to deny part-time faculty
the right to vote, the University was in fact attempting to ensure
that every part-time faculty member would be given an opportunity
to vote, based on the unions own description of the unit it
proposed to represent, in the event the NLRB directed an election.
On April 19, 2004, the Service Employees filed a third petition.
Although the union did not obtain any more support this time around,
their technical change to the petition met the NLRBs jurisdictional
requirement to hold an election. While the union still does not
have a majority of the part-time facultys support of its petition
for an election, the University took the position that it was in
the best interests of all part-time faculty and the University to
hold an election in order to put this question to rest. Accordingly,
the University agreed to meet with the Service Employees at the
NLRB Regional Directors office in Baltimore on April 28, 2004.
At the meeting, the University and the Service Employees reached
an agreement, which has been approved by the NLRB, that there will
be an election to determine whether or not the Service Employees
should be permitted to represent the Universitys part-time
faculty as its exclusive agent.
** The Service
Employees petitions claimed that there were approximately
1,000 part-time faculty who would be in the collective bargaining
unit if the union won an election. It appears that the Service Employees
based this number on data maintained on the Universitys Office
of Institutional Research Web site, which states that during the
Fall 2002 semester, GW employed 1,115 part-time faculty. The Service
Employees reliance on that figure is misleading: the data
is not current (Fall 2002 semester only), and it does not encompass
the unit the Service Employees indicated in its first two petitions
that it hoped to represent -- part-time and regular part-time faculty
who were employed by GW in either the Fall 2003 semester, the Spring
2004 semester, or both.
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