FOIAed Police Reports Show Washington Union Leader Impeded Police Investigation of Theft of Union Funds
by P.D. Lesko
At Green River Community College, located in a suburb of Seattle, Washington, adjuncts (303) make up the majority of the 443 faculty who teach at the two-year college. Between 2004-2010, an adjunct faculty member headed the Green River Community College United Faculty, a joint AFT-NEA local—the only joint AFT-NEA local in the state. Phil Ray Jack was elected, for all intents and purposes, by the full-time faculty to lead the local. Washington State union leaders have referred to Jack’s election and long-time stint as leader of the unified local, a “resounding success.” A part-time faculty member who was represented by Jack and UF for the years during which he led the union summed up his leadership quite differently.
“Phil Ray Jack (right) was an Uncle Tom,” says the adjunct who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation on the part of current UF leaders, many of whom are department chairs charged with hiring adjuncts and assigning classes. “Phil Jack did as he was told, and then was rewarded with a tenure-track job. He made sure equity money that should have gone to part-timers, went to full-timers teaching overload. He torpedoed legislation that would
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[...] the part-time faculty member had absolutely no authority to report the embezzlement to the police. Millbauer then told the detective investigating the complaint of embezzlement of union funds by the …. The union president refused to provide testimony or financial [...]
This is an example of what often goes on in college teacher unions. The complicity of “token” PTers is bought by putting them on the patronage list. It’s surprising how cheaply many people can be bought with a couple hundred bucks and an unspoken promise of a potential leg-up in the consideration of a future tenure committee. This time, the PTer simply got the best of the FTers and got out of Dodge with the pot. My guess is that Phil Jack knew very well all along how things worked, but was obviously more interested in his own advancement rather than a solution to the PT/FT apartheid problem which continues to plague the colleges. Until we see more altruistic motives among union folk in general, we can’t have a solution.
I’ll second Jack Longmate in commending Pat Lesko in this excellent piece of investigative journalism. The situation just confirms what so many adjuncts have witnessed. Not only are there economic ramifications, that a so-called union adjunct “rep” took money from the union and adjuncts. There is also the union’s attempt to turn adjunct faculty from free-thinking human beings into sheep. We have a right and a duty to keep libery and justice for all, and not give in to tieves and tyrants in the unions.
Again, Pat Lesko is to be commended for the research involved in bringing these issues to light, which extend beyond the limited scope of “adjuncts.”
I was struck by the Green River union president’s assertion that two union members “had “no authority” to speak to the police about the theft of the union money.” This would seem to be less an issue of tenured vs. non-tenured faculty but one of basic freedom of speech.
Jack Longmate
Adjunct English Instructor
Olympic College, Bremerton, WA