Important Announcement: Fall Membership Drive

I wanted to pass along this very important communication you may already have gotten via email from our director, Phil Lesch. It speaks for itself, but as a member of the bargaining team, I'd like to throw in my two cents. Unions live and die by one simple metric: the degree to which we can hang together. Sometimes we forget the adjective "collective" when we talk about bargaining, but it's actually the key part of the phrase. Together--collectively--we have a voice and some measure of control over our jobs. The more of us their are who are signed up as full members, the more influence we have at the bargaining table. I've seen it, and I want to let you know that it's not just a talking point.

Okay, enough from me; here's Phil...

As you know, contract negotiations are hitting a critical stage. OUS is proposing LARGE salary cuts, along with draconian changes to contract language that will make it difficult for us to negotiate restoration of those cuts next year, or ever.

Our success at the table depends on solidarity. Membership in PSU-AAUP is that solidarity.

• We stand for parity with other state workers: we seek an equal shared sacrifice across the system.
• We stand for a fair contract that does not force the risks of management onto the backs of faculty.
• We stand for quality. The financial crisis must not be used to exacerbate compression and inversion that would compromise the education PSU delivers.

If we are going to be able to deliver on these goals, we must have everyone in the unit standing with us as we fight. We need the Fair Share Fee Payers in your department, in your school, as members.

And we need YOU to recruit them.

For every Fair Share Fee Payer that you sign up as a member, we will load $10 onto a gift card at a local merchant for you. There is no limit. If you recruit every Fair Share Fee Payer in the unit, we will load $10 for every last one of them. We are that serious about building solidarity NOW.

If you would like a list of Fair Share Fee Payers in your department or in your school, send me an email at phil(at)psuaaup(dot)net.

This offer is available to all bargaining unit members. To get credit for a member recruit, write your name on the referral line of the application. You can download an application from http://www.psuaaup.net/Application(w-referal).pdf Keep a copy of the application in case our records get screwy, and then send it to us at address below. We will provide the gift cards at any time you ask: after one recruit loaded with $10, or you can wait until you have $1000 to spend. It’s up to you.

We are offering training on how to approach your co-workers with a PSU-AAUP application in hand. The Collective Bargaining Congress of AAUP National will be hosting its Fall Conference at PSU October 2-3, 2009. It is free, and you are welcome to attend any and all of the events. Session 2A, which is Saturday morning October 3 8:45-10:15AM is “Organizing Training: Boosting Faculty Activism/The Office Visit.” Registration is required for all events. Download the registration form: http://www.psuaaup.net/2009CBCFallRegistrationForm.doc. The Deadline for registration is September 25.

This is the most severe negotiating climate we have ever faced. We must organize, we must demonstrate, and we must succeed. Everyone in the bargaining unit must be working toward that end.

Thank you for your support, and for your effort. Together, we can succeed in delivering a fair settlement.

Keep the Faith,

Phil Lesch

Executive Director

AAUP Summer Institute

Over the weekend PSU-AAUP Director Phil Lesch and I attended the AAUP Summer Institute in Minneapolis.

For someone relatively new to active volunteer work with our chapter, it was a very enlightening experience. There were something like 200 participants at the Summer Institute, a record, and also 140 first-timers, also a record. The member and affiliate chapters range from very small, teaching-only schools to larger Ph.D-granting schools. (PSU has one of the larger memberships.)

Some of the universities represented by AAUP have only tenured professors or only a small number of fixed-term faculty (the classifications and names of these differ). My sense is that our ratio of tenure to fixed-term is weighted more to fixed term than other schools--Howard Bunsis, the AAUP treasurer, mentioned that at his university, Eastern Michigan, 70% of the faculty are tenure-line. Our contingent of academic professionals also seems novel to many I spoke to.

The institute is structured around four intensive three-hour sessions with lively titles like "Impasse Resolution" and "Faculty Leadership in Tough Financial Times." As you can imagine, the content got fairly detailed fairly quickly, so I'll skip the specifics. I left feeling energized and excited about the future. It was nice to see others who are in similar (or worse--sometimes far, far worse) situations and get a broader perspective.

UO Trying to Organize!

Apropos of the post yesterday about billowing administrative positions, here's news that there's a move afoot among University of Oregon professors to unionize.

As bad as things are in the state right now, it's good to remember that thanks to the union, we now have a seat at the table. Whatever cuts may be requested of our membership, they must be requested at the bargaining table. When you are a member of a union, you are able to question the assumptions and priorities of an administration. Bad times, but good times to be a member of a union.