> > wrote:
>
> Hi friends and colleagues:
>
> I would like to voice my opinion as a faculty member of this community on the
> issue of faculty union. I believe that unionization of faculty would bring
> many undesirable consequences with very little positive. Here are my reasons.
> We all take pride in coming to work and would like to see our school rise
> further. Unionization of faculty at a couple of medical schools in the
> country has not achieved this goal for them, and if anything, has caused those
> schools to decline. I do not believe that we should aspire to be like them.
> Already facing a unionized environment here, further unionization will add to
> the complexity and layering of our professional lives and will detract from
> what we come here to do. It will mean much difficulty in recruiting good
> people. Many of us may choose not to stay because of the environment this
> faculty union would create. In the end, it will mean a decline rather than
> a rising of our wonderful SOM. Union would prevent the award of incentive
> to those who deserve it. If the system becomes less competitive, there will
> be less funding in the system. This means that the only way one gets a raise
> in salary will occur at the expense of layoff of others. It is a false sense
> of security. Since I joined the faculty here nearly 8 years ago, the
> administration has successfully represented us downtown, even in the current
> and immediate past years with deficiency appropriations downtown etc. I
> believe that it will continue to do so. The attempt to unionize the faculty
> will be divisive and polarizing for us. We already have had elected councils
> that are doing their jobs-even with the current proposed merger with HH,
> members of councils and now all faculty will have a chance to weigh in and
> make changes as the process unfolds. Unionization of faculty will not add to
> what we have in the councils and will mean additional layer.
> Thanks for your time in reading this.
>
> Bruce
> On 8/18/09 12:06 PM, "Graveley,Brenton"
ReplyDelete> > wrote:
>
> I completely agree with everything Bruce said and think that faculty
> unionization would bring many more negatives to the table than positives. I
> have been here for almost 10 years and have not once felt as though the
> administration was unwilling to listen to concerns and act on them when
> appropriate. I, for one, do not want anyone but myself to represent me.
>
> Brent
> As a new faculty member, I also completely agree with Bruce and Brent. Let‚s
ReplyDelete> take a look for a moment at a number of other top academic places in the
> country, including MGH-Harvard medical school (where I trained for two years).
> They don't have a faculty union.
> Best,
>
> Erick Avelar, MD
On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 8:42 PM, Rosenberg,Daniel wrote:
ReplyDeleteDear all,
Although I wasn't on the original email list, I did come across this email
thread and wanted to provide my own personal experience.
While I deeply respect Bruce's opinion regarding potential unionization, I
am not sure I completely agree with his assessment of what the AAUP would do
to the Health Center. I was a member of the AAUP when I was on the faculty
in Storrs (1991-1999) and I found this membership to be nothing but a
positive experience. In fact, I honestly didn't even realize I was a member
of a union (nor did I really care since I was totally focused on getting NIH
grants and teaching) for the first five years I was in Storrs, but when I
wanted to come up for tenure one year early (based on my previous 3 1/2
years of equivalent rank at the Rockefeller University) and the
administration told me no way, I went to the AAUP and they took my case and
facilitated my request.
I think the time has come for faculty at UCHC to seriously consider the
AAUP.
DWR