From Leo Lefrancois

8/24/09 10:04 PM

Sandy-- I have no problem with discussing the potential unionization, and support an open discourse. I have been here nearly twenty years (yikes!) and each time it has come up it has helped us because the administration has made positive changes in response to the threat. Whether that will happen this time is not clear.  I don't support the union because I think that if people are doing their jobs then a union does not add any value- and we will pay 1% of our salary for not much. Ask the Storrs faculty- they have realized no gains over what UCHC faculty have received. Also, the postdoc union has done little except once again extract dues from the members with no real bargaining power to do anything meaningful for the postdocs. The latter is not hearsay- I have several postdocs in the lab- this is what I hear from them.

My other issue with unions is that one does not have a choice to join or not- if the vote is passed you cannot opt out- apparently you can but the dues are still extracted. Any organization that forces servitude is not a viable option for me. The union will not cure the financial ills of UCHC. They have no control over funding, budget, salaries, etc- don't believe the propaganda. Try to hire a research assistant and hope the "call-back" list doesn't force you to hire someone you do not wish to hire , or try to fire a research assistant who is not doing their job, good luck with that,- then you will know the rationale for the union= protect everyone regardless of quality- I don't believe that is the way to increase the quality of our faculty or our reputation. I could not agree more, that, as in the past, the councils and the seemingly endless list of committees being formed are largely ignored by the administration, but unionizing will not suddenly give us a voice- it will just result in another bureaucratic miasma that is happy to extract a pound of flesh with little to offer in return. What is needed are mechanisms to support productivity and excellence rather than "punishments" for failing to meet arbitrary metrics. In the absence of such incentives I fear we will continue to lose high quality faculty and have difficulty recruiting new faculty. I can only hope that discussions such as these will lead to positive changes in current and future policies. Keep the faith!

Leo

Leo Lefrancois, Ph.D.
Professor of Immunology
UCHC