SISU Adjuncts Set to Vote For

NEARLY 16 YEARS after the last union vote, some of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s professors will choose whether to go union this fall.

SIUE’s nontenure-track lecturers and instructors will vote Sept. 27-28 whether to allow the Illinois Education Association to represent them in collective bargaining. The IEA already represents the professional and technical staff at the university.

A card drive held last spring garnered enough interest to hold an election under the rules of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. Exact numbers were not available.

“We’re excited and very optimistic that once the election is held, everything will fall into place quickly,” said Alan Schiller, a speech communications instructor who helped to organize the union movement.

After the card drive, SIUE filed a protest stating part-time lecturers and full-time instructors should not be members of the same local. But the university dropped its objection before the matter could be heard by the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, which Schiller termed “a tremendous victory.”

“From a legal standpoint, we cannot comment,” SIUE spokesman Keith Nichols said.

In 1988, SIUE faculty voted to reject unions by a narrow margin. But that election asked them to choose between two unions, which long-time professors believe split the vote.
SIUE’s faculty consists of two groups. The tenure-track professors have a continuing appointment until they achieve tenure. Once reaching tenure, they may only be fired for serious ethical or legal violations, dishonesty or incompetence in teaching and research, and substantial neglect of their duties.
Nontenure-track instructors are on yearly contracts. Although they may teach the same number of classes as tenure-track professors, they are paid less and have different working conditions.

For nontenure-track instructors, salary and working conditions are vital issues, IEA organizer David Vitoff said. But for both groups, a greater voice on campus is a main reason to consider organizing.

“Organizing allows employees to become a squeaky wheel, to gain a place at the table to help decide how those resources are allocated,” Vitoff said.

Nontenure-track instructors and lecturers who teach in the spring and fall semesters of 2004 will be eligible to vote in the September election, Vitoff said, but it’s possible the union will represent more than those eligible to vote. For example, a professor who teaches only in the spring semesters might be eligible for the union, but ineligible to vote in September.

The vote requires a simple majority of those who cast a ballot. There are approximately 240 nontenure-track instructors at SIUE.

Although the specific dues have not yet been set, union membership might cost each member about $250 a year, Schiller said.