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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Religious and Labor Leaders Present Neutrality Statement for U of I |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!)
Phone: 337-5174 |
10 Mar 2001
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The Champaign-Urbana Interfaith Comittee for Worker Justice presented a request for University neutrality on union issues, good-faith bargaining, and dialogue about the University's anti-union activities. |
A new alliance of labor and community leaders made its public debut last week. The Champaign-Urbana Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice held a press conference at the University YMCA on Wednesday and presented a statement asking the university to remain neutral when employees are deciding whether or not to form a union. The statement, which was read by Rev. Tim Hallett of St. John\'s Episcopal, notes that early on--in the 1950\'s--the university did not interfere with employees\' collective bargaining decisions, but that for the past twenty years, administrators have strenuously fought any efforts at collective bargaining. The statement also calls for the university to engage in open dialogue with the community over its anti-union stance. The statement has been signed by dozens of community and labor leaders, and can be read at the urbana independent media website, urbana.indymedia.org. The Interfaith Committee is seeking more signatures for the statement. [Illinois Labor Hour, 3/10/01]
INTERFAITH COMMITTEE FOR WORKER JUSTICE OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
As members of religious groups and community and labor organizations in Champaign County, we recognize the important role the University of Illinois plays in the economic and cultural life of the local community and the state as a whole. We applaud its excellences and accomplishments and its well-earned reputation as a leading academic institution. We also call upon the University to be true to its better nature in relation to its employees.
As citizens of Illinois we have a significant investment in the University and a concern for its future well-being. As persons of faith and representatives of labor, we have a responsibility to take note of University actions and policies which are deleterious to that well-being and contrary to the standards we have a right to expect from the state\'s flagship institution.
In the past two decades the University Administration has diminished the University in the eyes of many by its implacable opposition to the unionization of clerical and academic employees. The Administration has steadfastly resisted the implications of the Educational Labor Relations Act of 1983, bringing to bear its abundant financial, legal, administrative, and political resources to thwart unionization efforts. The protracted struggle of AFSCME 3700 to organize and gain certification is a case in point. Its difficulties in bringing the University to a point of good-faith bargaining carry the unfortunate history further. The forced dissolution of the established faculty union when Sangamon State University became part of the University of Illinois is a recent and egregious instance of anti-union bias.
The Unversity is currently involved in mighty and costly efforts to thwart organization by graduate employees. Having failed in the courts to have its way, the University now seeks to deny the reality of its dependence on the labor of graduate students and to define as narrowly as possible the potential pool of future union members. At the same time, the University is engaged in a familiar pattern of intimidation against attempts by the Association of Academic Professionals to organize a collective voice for their job concerns.
We encourage the University, which has \"Learning\" as part of its motto, to learn from its own positive experience with its unionized employees. The University\'s history prior to 1980 was not anti-union. The University accepted the Universities Civil Service Act of 1951 requiring union recognition and the union wage for many of its employees. The positive result of AFSCME organization at the University, despite University attempts to prevent the organization of clerical employees, is a local example of the beneficial effect of unionization. The University profits from the better working conditions and morale gained by AFSCME workers through their collective voice. The University could also profit from the example of institutions it claims as peers, such as the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan, where positive relations with graduate employees and other union groups have become part of the institutional fabric.
We ask the University to remember that \"Labor\" is the other half of its motto. It was founded as the Illinois Industrial University and serves as the principal public institution in a labor state. Its long-term interests are not served by alienating the several labor organizations that represent employees and seek to represent those not yet served by collective bargaining.
We do not think it asks too much of our University to be a model of labor relations, just as it seeks to be a leader in learning. We believe the academic stature of the University will only grow as it attends to the needs of all its employees. We hope the University can someday claim to be \"world-class\" in its dealings with those who make it work.
We expect the University to do good not only when it must, but because it can. We yearn to see our University act not only out of expediency, or necessity, or under legal compulsion, but because it seeks to do the right thing. We expect the University to attend to matters of justice, fairness, respect of all its employees, and true collegiality. The laborers are worthy of their hire and their voice must be heard. The University shuts its ears to the detriment of us all.
We call upon the University Administration to refrain from activities which undermine with the free choice of workers to join a union; to present accurate information and cease the prevalent pattern of statements designed to obfuscate issues and mislead constituencies; to be truly neutral with respect to employee decisions regarding union representation; and to remember that bargaining with unions in good faith is not merely a legal requirement but also a moral imperative..
We call upon the University Administration to address these concerns in public conversation and honest dialogue with the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice and other interested groups.
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by Peter Miller
peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified) |
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22 Mar 2001
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