Vermont College Fires Union Organizer and Wins in Court
THE VERMONT SUPREME Court has ruled that the University of Vermont did nothing wrong when it failed to reappoint a professor that had strong ties to the school’s newly formed faculty union.
Dawn Saunders taught economics as a visiting professor at UVM from 1995 to the spring of 2003. She was active in organizing the faculty to unionize, and was a member of the negotiating team that hammered out the union’s first contract in February of 2003.
University officials opposed the union’s formation, and that winter did not offer her a new appointment for the following school year, ending her employment.
Saunders charged that her dismissal was retaliation for her union involvement, and grieved the university’s action to the Vermont Labor Relation’s Board.
The board ruled in favor of the university. Saunders appealed to the Supreme Court, which in September upheld the board’s ruling.
“We are disappointed the court saw it that way,” says Roy Vestrich, Saunders’s husband and president of the State Federation of United Professionals of Vermont, the union that includes UVM professors.
Vestrich said the decision to fire his wife, who was unavailable for comment, came from University Provost John Bramley. Saunders and Bramley, for the 13 months leading up to her dismissal, often locked horns during contentious contract negotiations.
“The Provost was dealing with her at the negotiation table,” Vestrich says. “So there are some questions here.”
But the seven-page court decision, authored by Associate Justice Denise Johnson, never mentions Saunders’s claim of retribution, which was extensively detailed in Labor Relations Board documents.
The decision instead sticks to the legal issues surrounding the employment rights of a visiting professor, and concludes that Saunders was not unjustly dismissed.
“It was a fairly routine personnel-related dispute that worked its way through the system,” says Enrique Corredera, a university spokesman. “We are pleased with the outcome.”
Corredera said the court ignored Saunders’s claim of retaliation because there was no evidence to support the accusation.
“I don’t believe her claims were ever supported by any facts or they would have found their way into the case,” Corredera said. “The fact that the court never touched it validates that these claims were nonexistent.”
The high-court decision puts an end to the case because there are no more avenues of appeal.
“This is the end of the line,” Vestrich said.
Vestrich said his wife continues to work with the union regarding university affairs, and is helping the part-time faculty negotiate its first contract with school officials. She will also teach a class at Castleton State College this fall, he says.
