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University Ordered to Negotiate with Union
By Gwendolyn Bradley
In January, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered George Washington University to start negotiating a contract with a new union of part-time faculty members. Part-time faculty at the private institution voted in favor of the union last spring, and the election was certified as valid in May 2005 by the NLRB, the agency that oversees the National Labor Relations Act. However, the GWU administration, which had campaigned against the union, announced shortly after the election that it would not negotiate because of a dispute over who should have been allowed to vote.
The NLRB found that the administration’s challenge to the election was without merit because its argument was essentially that the election should be set aside because of its own failure to comply with requirements in setting up the election. To allow such a failure as a basis for setting aside an election, the NLRB found, would be to “invite abuse.” The university has asked a federal appeals court to hear an appeal in the case.
The GWU union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, is part of a growing movement by part-time faculty to engage in collective bargaining in an attempt to improve their working conditions and job security. Part-time faculty are generally exempt from a series of unfavorable rulings by the NLRB that have made it more difficult for fulltime faculty at private institutions to form unions. Also in January, part-time faculty at Syracuse University and Suffolk University voted to form unions.
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