SIUE Faculty Group Ratifies Union
Part-time and other temporary faculty members at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville have voted 78 to 31 for the Illinois Education Association to represent them. The result was announced in late-October after two days of balloting.
The election makes the IEA the bargaining agent for the SIUE Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association. The group consists of about 270 teachers, an estimated 40 percent of SIUE’s faculty. They are mostly part-timers paid by the course, but also include full-timers on short-term contracts. The full-timers get some benefits, the part-timers none. Members of both groups have complained to union organizers about the lack of pay increases, a grievance procedure and job security. None has tenure nor permanent appointment, and they aren’t in line to get it.
Association spokesman Alan Shiller, who teaches speech communication, said, “We gained a good voice,” and considering the size of the vote, he added, “I think this is something the university is going to have to listen to.”
SIUE spokesman Greg Conroy said, “It’s not unexpected. This is a trend that’s been going on around the country.”
Conroy said the university had taken a neutral stance on the vote. He said university officials would negotiate with the union.
The SIUE teachers formed their association a year and a half ago. In March 2003, they petitioned the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board for an election. The university initially balked, and officials contended that the proposed voting unit improperly included two different types of faculty members. In May 2004, the university dropped its objection, and the board scheduled the election. The SIUE teachers are the latest of several temporary faculty groups to form collective bargaining units at two- and four-year public colleges in Illinois, either under the Illinois Education Association or Illinois Federation of Teachers.
These units of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers also represent full-time faculty on a number of Illinois campuses.
