9-17-2009 PDF file
By now, you have all received an e-mail from the administration directing you to a new website with a "Frequently Asked Questions" section containing answers to questions they have received and questions they have "anticipated.. We agree that it is important to have, in Dean Laurencin's terms, an "open, informed, and respectful dialogue." We also believe that it is important for the information you receive to be accurate and balanced. In that spirit, we offer our own FAQs and responses, which we will continue to expand.
Most of what follows speaks to FAQs and answers provided by the administration. We also pose and address questions raised by colleagues that are not addressed on the administration's website.
Before beginning, we would like to first underscore that "the union" is not an external third party, as it is portrayed on the administration's website.
WE, the UCHC faculty, are the union.
WE, the UCHC faculty, elect our leaders, determine our priorities, and represent our colleagues.
WE, the UCHC faculty, would hire any staff locally that would help with professional assistance.
By way of our commitment: WE are committed to quality. By quality, we mean quality of clinical care, quality of education, quality of research, and quality of work life. Our measures of our success lie not in the "rankings" of business magazines but in the judgments and outcomes of our patients, students, and peers locally, nationally and internationally.
AAUP FAQs:
i. I am concerned about signing a card or of becoming visibly involved in the campaign for a union for fear of retaliation by the administration; is the anonymity of my card protected, even if the cards are contested?
AAUP: Yes, confidentiality is ensured. It is illegal to reveal the names on cards, which are handled by the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations. Several faculty members have communicated concerns about retaliation, which speaks to the climate at the Health Center. A union protects faculty members against the arbitrary actions of an administration. The fact that faculty have concerns about retaliation is evidence of why we need the due process and protection afforded by a union and a negotiated contract.
ii. I may want union representation but it seems that by signing the card, I am locked in to the UCHC Faculty Association/AAUP; am I authorizing this union by signing the card?
AAUP: The purpose of signing the cards is to generate an election. It is the case that the UConn Storrs AAUP has provided the initiative to generate this campaign and UCHC faculty involved in this campaign have recognized that affiliation with the leading academically-oriented AAUP is the best choice for a faculty union and a collective bargaining agent.
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iii. Can having a union help faculty be involved in "executive" decision making such as the shift in shares of monies over time from educational to administrative expenditures? AAUP: One of the reasons for forming a faculty union is to ensure that the faculty have an independent voice in decision making that relates both to the budget and the future of the institution. A union provides faculty with a vehicle for having meaningful participation with regard to major domains of decision making.
iv. I'm thinking about signing a card, but what if an administrator promises some benefit to myself or my unit if we do not support a union, or what if an administrator threatens some disincentive should I or my unit support a union?
AAUP: In the midst of an organizing campaign it is an unfair labor practice for an administrator to threaten some form of punishment or to promise some type of reward to faculty depending on their position about a union. Any such practices should be reported immediately to Ed Marth, Executive Director of the UConn Storrs AAUP.
AAUP Response to FAQ Answers on the Administration's Website:
1. Q. What happens if the faculty elects to unionize?
Administration: If the faculty elects to unionize, UCHC would be obligated to bargain with the Union as your exclusive representative. To ensure exclusivity, the law forbids employers from "direct dealing" with individual employees. The law compels individual rights with respect to wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment to be yielded to the union.
AAUP: The administration's response misrepresents the law. The law forbids direct negotiations, not direct dealing with individual employees. The difference is in addressing general terms and conditions of employment. Many AAUP collective bargaining agreements, like the one for faculty at Storrs, set MINIMUM salaries. That is, salaries can exceed what is bargained, but not be set below what is bargained. For example, Dr X has a job offer at University Y which exceeds her current base salary by $15,000. The Administration would like to retain Faculty X and thus agrees to match University Y's offer. A collective bargaining agreement would not prevent such an increase.
2. Q. If faculty elects to unionize, how soon would there be a contract?
Administration: Contract negotiations are a give-and-take-process, which takes time. Many state contracts have taken significant time to renegotiate and a first contract typically takes considerably longer – eighteen months to two years is not unusual. Until a contract agreement is reached, ratified and ultimately approved by the General Assembly, there can be no changes in wages, terms or other conditions of employment unless agreed to by labor and management.
AAUP: The time it takes to negotiate a first contract depends in part on the administration's willingness to negotiate. It is not unusual for administrations to utilize various tactics to delay the proceedings after an election. The law does, however, provide for arbitration of differences. In the meantime, changes in wages, terms or other conditions of employment can occur when agreed upon by labor and management. Still we must keep in mind that the vast majority of the faculty at the UCHC have received no salary increases for the past two years and the only changes in the terms and conditions of employment that have been discussed by the administration have been to the detriment of the faculty.
3. Q. Would I be obligated to join the Union if the faculty elects to unionize?
Administration: If joining a union means paying dues as a condition of your employment, then the answer is yes, if the Union negotiates a union shop or agency shop clause. Legally, this is a matter for negotiation, but all existing state contracts have either a union shop or an agency shop clause, which would require you to pay dues or what is referred to as an agency fee, as a condition of employment – whether or not you want to be represented by the union. Under most union contracts, the dues or fees are automatically deducted from your paycheck. Since the union would be the exclusive bargaining representative, they would represent you and bind you to whatever contract they negotiate. In fact, the union has the right to act on your behalf regarding all union contract matters whether you want them to or not. If the Union tells you that you would not actually have to be a "member," what that means under a union shop or agency shop clause is that you are still required to pay for their exclusive representation.
AAUP: Connecticut law requires that individuals covered by a state contract pay dues or agency fee. The law addresses the matter of "free riders," people in the unit who enjoy the benefits of the negotiated terms (e.g., salary, health benefits, research support, intellectual property provisions, workload) should pay for those benefits. It has been widely reported that the rate agreed to by the faculty at Storrs is 0.9% (< 1%) of salary. The union will act on your behalf only to establish "minimum" salaries and minimum terms of employment.
4. Q. Is it true that if a Union was certified as the representative for our faculty, they would have the exclusive right to represent all faculty, even if a specific faculty member declined that representation?
Administration: Yes, that is true. The law says that if a union is certified to represent a group of employees, e.g. faculty, and the majority of that group elect representation, all employees in the group will be represented whether they like it or not. What that means is that even if 49% of the faculty voted against the Union, the Union would still be their exclusive representative.
AAUP: A majority decision in a union certification election is not 51%; it is 50% +1. That means if 50% +1 faculty voted against collective representation, the 50%-1 who voted for it would be deprived of the right to collective bargaining.
5. Q. If a long term solution to the UCHC's structural financial problems is not agreed to, will a unionized faculty mean severe program cuts and layoffs will be averted?
Administration: Having a union does not mean that jobs are protected. In fact, layoffs and program cuts—if required to help close budget deficits, can and do happen with unionized workforces.
AAUP: Depending on the strength of a contract, the existence of a union can make it more difficult for an administration to negotiate and put into effect layoffs, particularly of tenured or tenure track faculty, as well as to arbitrarily and often unnecessarily reorganize programs, increase workloads, and freeze or cut salaries and health benefits. That is part of why administrations resist unionization--a collective bargaining agreement can make such conditions and decisions a subject of bargaining. An AAUP union can also help avoid layoffs through lobbying for better state budgets and via the pursuit of other means of achieving budget reductions. Because UCHC faculty are without a collective bargaining agreement, nearly every faculty member is currently functioning at the whim of the administration. The following document details how the AAUP helped to avoid layoffs at Storrs even when the administration argued to retain the right to lay people off.
http://www.uconnaaup.org/documents/AAUPWAGECONCESSIONAGREEMENT4-20-2009.pdf
6. Q. What is a "super-seniority" provision?
Administration: A "super-seniority" provision is a contract clause that requires UCHC to ignore the actual seniority of union officers and their appointed shop stewards, usually in layoff situations. Those individuals would have greater job security than any other employee, even those employees who have been at UCHC for a longer time.
AAUP: Super-seniority is found in some contracts as a means to protect union leaders from being targeted by anti-union employers, which is often understandable given concerns about retaliation. However, such a provision does not exist in the Storrs AAUP contract, as the administration surely knows, and it does not need to exist in an UCHC AAUP contract.
7. Q. I've already signed a union card and now am not sure I should have. Can I withdraw it?
Administration: You may make a request of the union that they return the card to you.
AAUP: If someone changes his or her mind after signing a card, it will be withdrawn on request.
Compensation
1. Q. If the faculty elects to unionize would higher wages and benefits result?
Administration: There are no guarantees; everything is negotiable. This means that after collective bargaining is over, you could end up with less than you have now, with more, or everything could stay the same.
AAUP: Recent evidence on union negotiation of wages and benefits supports the view that unions are working effectively to raise the salaries and protect the health benefits of faculty, whereas administrations are systematically seeking to freeze and cut salaries and to reduce benefits. It is just these "checks and balances" that are the lifeblood of collective bargaining. When the administration is unencumbered with collective bargaining, the evidence in our case and others is that salaries and benefits remain static or are reduced.
In their 2006 book, The American Faculty, Jack Schuster and Marty Finkelstein, leading scholars in the field of higher education administration point to the positive effect of unionization on faculty salaries with a particular emphasis on reduction of the gender gap.
The salaries of the Storrs faculty are quite good, particularly for a public university. They are in the 80-94.9 percentile for full professors and instructors, and the 60-79.9 percentile for assistant and associate professors (see the March/April issue of Academe, on-line, which provides an annual survey of faculty salaries nationally). This positive picture of UConn, Storrs salaries is a result of consistent cost-of-living increases negotiated by UConn AAUP as a part of its collective bargaining agreement plus the opportunity for merit increases. In contrast, UCHC faculty receive no cost-of-living increase and secure raises only through the merit system. A UCHC faculty member must meet performance expectations to get even a minimal increase that is well below the cost-of-living increase in the Storrs collective bargaining agreement.
Unionization will ensure that base salary determination will not be at the whim of the administration, and will not be subject to arbitrary, one-sided action. It will be a matter of negotiation between the bargaining teams of the faculty and of the administration.
2. Q. Wouldn't the state be forced to pay for a wage increase?
Administration: No. Under the applicable labor law, whether the parties reach a negotiated agreement or not, the Legislature must approve any General Fund appropriation for the contract or arbitration award. Under the law, arbitrators must consider several factors in making their awards, including 'ability to pay'. In an arbitration decision issued this past spring in a state employee contract, the arbitrator noted the Legislature's options in this regard and in his award noted in relevant part that:
When the record economic and financial testimony and exhibits are fully considered along with subsequent economic and financial events, it is painfully clear that the State of Connecticut's ability to pay is less than at any time in recent memory and likely to get worse. This is not the time for substantial improvement in employee compensation or new or increased benefits without proof of compelling need and consistency with the statutory factors. The State simply cannot afford it in these trying times."
At the Health Center, just over 20% of our costs are supported by the General Fund. Thus, if there is an arbitration award that raises salaries and is approved by the legislature, the general fund will at best cover about 20%. The burden to generate the remaining 80% would then come from our clinical operations, tuition revenues, position reductions and re-allocations of the salary pool. The Partnership proposal seeks to change this through sustained financial support from Hartford Health Care Corporation.
AAUP: In arguing that the state simply cannot afford improved employee compensation and benefits, the administration is abrogating its role to advocate for enhancing support for public higher education, which has been declining in relative terms over the last several years. Unions, in general, and the AAUP in particular increase the legislative influence and political impact of the academic community as a whole by maintaining regular relations with the state governments and collaborating with affiliated labor organizations.
Despite the difficult times, substantial shifts in the share of institutional expenditures are going to administrative versus educational activities, and that nationally, salaries of senior administrators relative to those of senior faculty are substantially increasing (see the Delta Project for data on expenditures; see the March/April issue of Academe for administrative/faculty salaries).
3. Q. What's so terrible about a faculty union fighting for salary increases and other benefits for its members?
Administration: The administration wants to provide financial support for programs and activities that will advance the mission of the Health Center and support and develop our faculty and the rest of the workforce.
We do not believe that a faculty union is beneficial for you or for UCHC. Like other academic medical centers, we want to recruit and retain talented faculty members. We know that in order to do this, we must compete by providing the kind of pay and benefits that will attract and keep our outstanding faculty. We acknowledge the Health Center's difficult financial situation has impacted our ability to give raises, but we are investing in a course of action through the partnership which will add financial stability to the institution, which a union cannot.
AAUP: There is nothing in a collective bargaining agreement that would prevent the hiring and retention of talented faculty members. Collective bargaining agreements generally have market and merit provisions to enable the recruitment "off scale" of key faculty in key fields as described in Q1.
4. Q. You say the union can't guarantee salary increases or job protection. You certainly can't guarantee these things either, so what's the difference?
Administration: You are right—there are no guarantees. However, we strongly believe that working together without an outside third party, will make for better decisions among individuals closest to and personally invested in the Health Center at lower costs overall and with far greater opportunities for rewarding performance. The union cannot guarantee the over $100 million in funding that is connected to the proposed Hartford Health Care partnership, including the $35 million in academic support that must be paid to the Health Center over the first five years. But the partnership with Hartford Hospital would be obligated to, not to mention an obligation to cover the Hospital's operating deficit at a time when it is increasingly difficult to get the State to do so.
AAUP: For the most part faculty have not been part of the ongoing negotiation of the partnership with Hartford Hospital and the plan at the moment lacks even the most basic support (planning grant) by the Legislature . The "books" on this agreement need to be opened to scrutiny to ensure a prudent approach to the partnership that will serve the public's interest, as well as that of the students, patients, and faculty. Although the administration says that it wishes to work together, it has been negotiating the future of the faculty in private, and behind closed doors. The administration's answer to this question suggests Hartford Hospital will magically bailout the Health Center and the partnership will be in the best interests of the faculty. Serious questions have been raised about this supposition.
5. Q. Will the union limit compensation?
Administration: As previously noted, the union cannot guarantee any specific result of contract negotiations. We can say that for example, under AAUP's contract at Wayne State University, the contract added rules in support of its goal to 'regulate salaries.' Before the University can offer salaries above the minimum, Article XII requires that: "The department chair reviews all hiring rates with the elected faculty Salary Committee or, when a quorum of the committee cannot be assembled, with available members of the committees." One concern might be how long this process takes and how does it impact recruitment of quality candidates with competing offers.
AAUP: One might ask why the administration would choose to invoke the Wayne State rather than UConn, Storrs contract in this regard. Again, we stress that the UConn AAUP contract is a "minimum terms agreement". The complex structure set-up by Wayne State does not apply under these terms and will not apply in an UCHC AAUP contract.
Governance
1. Q. Why does the Health Center believe a union isn't the right choice for faculty?
Administration: The issue is what is of greater benefit to the faculty and the Health Center. We believe that the faculty has had a role in its terms and conditions of employment – without the need for a third party serving as sole spokesperson. For example, among the strategies in the academic plan under development and review by the faculty and others are:
Strategy C: Enhance the standing and national recognition of our programs of research, scholarship, and creative activity. This includes the goal to: "Provide appropriate assistance for professional development opportunities, research related travel, and sabbaticals that will facilitate scholarship at the highest level." The Health Center also has a well-established governance system with elected faculty councils that have been actively involved in such things as:
The acceptance of the new bylaws in 2005 and the voting out of the old 'guidelines'; modification of criteria for promotion and tenure to include collaborative investigators; management of the SOM curriculum and educational policies; increase of time to tenure; stop the clock mechanism for tenure and implementation of a post-tenure review policy.
The Health Center does face many challenges. A union does not and cannot solve the Health Center's structural deficit, cannot build a new hospital, and/or increase the clinical practice base for the faculty (which the Partnership would do). Adding union representation does not help us address the problems we currently face in any way. Instead, a faculty union would add another layer of negotiation, administrative expense to manage the contract, work, and delays that would only add to existing problems.
AAUP: One of the principal reasons the administration opposes unionization of the faculty is that collective bargaining would reduce the administration's ability to act unilaterally. The administration may well talk of shared governance. Its actions, however, are more consistent with unilateral managerial decisions conducted without faculty having the full information necessary to have meaningful participation in decision making. It may well refer to established faculty councils, but when those councils express strong opposition to key managerial measures their advice has been largely ignored.
2. Q. The union claims it will not limit faculty participation in governance and advancing academic excellence and that it serves to ensure meaningful governance can exist and will 'guarantee a bilateral method of adjusting to both opportunity and adversity.' What does this mean?
Administration: The statement is vague, but appears to suggest that the union has a role in academic governance. As we have stated, the union can make no guarantees. Moreover, the union, by state labor law, cannot force negotiation over academic planning, such as the establishment of special academic programs, the grading system, scholarship standards, course requirements, and so forth.
AAUP: Collective bargaining agreements can and do give force to meaningful and productive shared governance processes. The AAUP is not an outside union seeking to dictate academic policy from afar. It would be the faculty at UCHC who become the AAUP union chapter. Furthermore, it is faculty leaders nationally who define the AAUP's work in ways that promote cooperation between faculties and administrations to the benefit of students, institutions, and the broader society. The collective bargaining agreement will not micromanage academic governance as stated in the Storrs' Policy on Faculty Professional Responsibilities (http://policy.uconn.edu/pages/findPolicy.cfm?PolicyID=266) "Because of the flexibility required within an academic unit to meet the unique constraints of teaching undergraduate and graduate students in a research environment, the University of Connecticut Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) chooses to delegate the complexity of workload policy to university practice." However, an agreement can make more likely the meaningful involvement of faculty members in governance practices.
Faculty should set academic standards and determine curricula; faculty should be primarily responsible for decisions on academic appointments, rank, and status; and faculty should preserve the academic freedom of their membership. Ensuring balanced governance means that the AAUP will see to it that faculty are at the negotiating table, that administration must work through established governance channels and not in secrecy or in silence, and not go outside the established governance structure to institute policies at whim. A union is not a guarantee; rather, it is an opportunity for faculty to organize and act together to re-center the UCHC on its academic goals.
3. Q. Won't a union give the faculty a greater voice in the administration of the institution?
Administration: We believe the voice of the faculty can be better exercised using the existing venues of governance rather than through a third party via the collective bargaining process. In fact, we encourage the faculty to use these venues. The faculty has many venues to exercise their voices proactively within the School level governance models. There currently are four voting faculty members on the Academic Affairs subcommittee of the Board of Directors which has final jurisdiction over matters such as the decisions to promote to senior rank or to award tenure. There are five faculty members (4 elected) on the Clinical Affairs subcommittee of the Board of Directors which has final jurisdiction over matters such as the annual performance improvement plan (i.e. the master plan over quality of care). One faculty member was appointed to the full Board of Directors from a pool of 3 that were elected for candidacy by the faculty.
AAUP: The administration is apparently unaware of the fact that in universities with AAUP unions there are well-developed faculty governance structures and well functioning governance processes. The administration continues to present the AAUP as a "third party," apparently not understanding that UCHC faculty members are the union, that in unionized universities there are faculty elected as union officers, and faculty elected as academic senate officers or on faculty councils. The two structures coexist in universities throughout the country, including the Storrs campus.
As for the effectiveness of current structures and processes, again, regardless of the administration's assertions, there are many faculty who believe the actions of the administration are often in opposition to what the faculty desires. This lack of representation is why faculty are considering forming a union as a means to gain an independent voice, a faculty voice that is given the role and respect that faculty, as professionals, merit.
Being Top Tier
Q. Faculty unions have existed in the SUNY System and at UMDNJ for quite some time—and those institutions seem to be doing just fine. How do you explain this?
Administration: Depending on the state (NY, NJ, CT) there are very different labor laws that apply, so making a direct, objective comparison is impossible. There are strong opinions on both sides, but one thing is clear. When it comes to ranking the nation's academic medical centers, SUNY and UMDNJ are in the middle of the pack. Currently we are too, but we want to be much better. Unionizing the faculty does not enhance the stature or professional reputation of these institutions. Maybe SUNY and UMDNJ are content with where they are; we shouldn't be.
AAUP: The administration implies that the unionization of the faculty at SUNY and/or UMDNJ would make these institutions less interested in increasing their ranking and prominence while remaining non-unionized would enhance UCHC's quest for higher rank. No objective support of these assertions is supplied. Incredible growth has occurred on the Storrs campus in the last decade, attributable in large part to the success of UConn 2000 and Uconn 21st century in which Uconn AAUP played a large role. Uconn is now rated the top public higher education institution in New England and it achieved this ranking with a unionized faculty.
2. Q. You claim that a faculty union will make it more difficult to recruit and reward faculty. Where is your proof?
Administration: We know that there are faculty who do not want to be covered by a union contract and want to be treated as individual performers for the contributions they make. Because a union would be exclusive representative of all faculty, some physicians may simply view this fact as a relinquishment of control. We have already heard from some individuals that we are attempting to recruit right now that a "yes" vote would alter their decision to come to UCHC.
AAUP: The administration has already acknowledged that it has had difficulties in recruiting and retaining faculty related to its current fiscal situation. In addition, the uncertainty of the hospital partnership might also lead some candidates to not pursue a position here. Rather than speculating, and portraying unionization as the likely cause of potential problems, the administration would do well to consider that the organizing drive is a symptom of larger and quite real problems in faculty morale and in faculty/administration relations.
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