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Promoting Quality Higher Education– An Investment in Oregon’s Future

South Dakota Politician to Seek a Bank on Faculty Collective Bargaining

November 20, 2017 / Phil Lesch

According to a media report, South Dakota House Speaker Mark Mickelson has announced plans to introduce legislation that would strip collective bargaining rights from faculty who work at South Dakota public universities.  Speaker Mickelson's plan stems from his reaction to law school faculty resisting demands that they teach on weekends and in the evening.

South Dakota law already limits university faculty and exempt staff bargaining to salary. The current South Dakota statute states that a certified or recognized union is the exclusive representative with "respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, or other conditions of employment; provided that salary increases for Board of Regents' faculty and exempt staff may only be distributed to address institutional priorities, program needs, performance meeting or exceeding expectations, or internal or external market considerations." (emphasis added)

The South Dakota Board of Regents and the Council of Higher Education, SDEA-NEA are parties to a collective bargaining agreement expiring on June 30, 2019.  State legislation that interferes with the negotiated terms of that contract are be subject to a legal challenge under the Contracts Clause of the United States Constitution (Article 1, Section 10), which prohibits States from passing laws that impair the obligation of contracts. 

EF 11/28/2017

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