Lecturers and Instructors Seek Union Representation

Last year the union drive extended from part-time to full-time teaching staff at Tufts and Lesley Universities, where bargaining units are now in contract talks with Local 509. Photo courtesy of CentralMassAficio.org

One year after part-time faculty at the University voted to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 509, a portion of full-time nontenured lecturers and instructors at BU have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for permission to vote to do the same. The new group, which consists of more than 250 lecturers and instructors on the Charles River Campus, will be sent mail-in ballots by the NLRB on March 22. In order to remain free of union representation, a majority of those voting will need to vote “no” in the upcoming election.

The organizational effort is the latest chapter in a larger movement at colleges and universities in the Boston area, a campaign that has unionized part-time faculty at Tufts, Bentley, Brandeis, Lesley, and Northeastern Universities.

Last year the drive extended from part-time to full-time teaching staff at Tufts and Lesley, where bargaining units are now in contract talks with Local 509. The Boston Globe reports that the Tufts group has about 100 members and at Lesley there are nearly 200.

Judi Burgess, BU’s labor relations director, says the University’s negotiations with the initial unit, which represents about 750 part-time faculty, are moving along on several issues. BU Today reported last year that among those issues were expected to be compensation, working conditions, and part-time faculty’s role in decision-making.

Burgess says the eligibility of individuals to vote in the petitioned-for group of full-time nontenured faculty was agreed upon with the union this past Friday. Those who are eligible are all nontenured or non-tenure-track lecturers, senior lecturers, master lecturers, and instructors who are salaried (whether full-time, part-time, or half-time) and who teach at least one credit-bearing course on the Charles River Campus, including in the Metropolitan College Prison Program.

Excluded from the bargaining unit are all professors (full, associates, and assistants and professors of the practice); faculty compensated solely on a per-course basis; faculty at the School of Medicine, the Goldman School of Dental Medicine, and the School of Law; the Questrom School of Business graduate faculty; and deans, provosts, administrators, department chairs, and associate chairs. Also excluded are postdocs, graduate assistants, and graduate students; athletics coaches; lecturers, senior lecturers, master lecturers, or instructors who teach only courses at campuses other than Charles River (with the exception of the Metropolitan College Prison Program) or non-degree-granting courses (including the Center for Professional Education); the directors of the Writing Program and the Health Communication Program; the chairs of the Mechanical Engineering Course Review Committee and the Undergraduate Lab Safety Committee; the manager of the Global Hospitality Education Consortium; the director/coordinator of the College of Communication Adjunct Writing Program; all faculty who teach exclusively in online programs; managers, confidential employees, guards, and supervisors; and all other employees of the University.

Burgess notes that the eligibility of certain potential voters, including those who serve on the University Council, is subject to challenge since their eligibility has not been resolved. If the union should win the election, the NLRB will hold a hearing on the status of these individuals and whether they should be excluded from the bargaining unit.

Julie Sandell, associate provost for faculty affairs and a School of Medicine professor of anatomy and neurobiology, describes the upcoming vote as disheartening. She says the lecturers, senior lecturers, master lecturers, and instructors in the prospective bargaining unit are already highly regarded and treated as regular members of the faculty, including being assigned the same annual salary raise pool as the professorial full-time faculty.

“Our lecturers generally have contracts for one to three years,” Sandell says. “Senior and master lecturers usually have longer contracts. They are members in the Faculty Assembly, and they already have access to the same benefits as other faculty members, such as health and retirement benefits and tuition remission.”

When the University develops new faculty policies, she says, lecturers have been included; for example, prospective bargaining unit members have been able to take paid Childbirth Leave and Primary Caregiver Workload reduction since 2011, when these policies went into effect for faculty. She says lecturers have a path to senior and master lecturer and are rewarded for promotions.

“Our full-time lecturers are highly valued and recognized,” says Sandell. “Three years ago, a master lecturer in physics won the Metcalf Cup and Prize, and senior lecturers have won Metcalf Awards as recently as last year. These are our highest teaching honors. In short, we value our full-time lecturers, and we treat them well. It is disheartening to think that the prospective voters expect to develop a better relationship with the University by choosing exclusive representation by the SEIU. Today our full-time lecturers are faculty colleagues; if the majority of voters choose SEIU representation, they will all become represented employees. There is a world of difference.”

The Local 509 Faculty Forward website says that “the election petition marks the latest milestone in the growing faculty union movement, with more than 3,500 Boston-area educators united in a shared effort to improve their profession and the overall quality of higher education through unionization.”

In a prepared statement sent to the Boston Globe, Bill Marx, a senior lecturer in the College of Arts & Sciences Writing Program, said, “This action comes down to recognizing the value of the job we do in educating our students, improving the conditions under which we work, and the active role we must play in the decision-making process.”

Burgess says ballots for the vote will be mailed to faculty by the NLRB on March 22, and must be returned to the NLRB by close of business on April 5, 2016. The NLRB address is 10 Causeway St., Floor 6, Boston, MA 02222-1001. Ballots will be counted at the NLRB on April 6, 2016, at 11 a.m. Last year’s vote by part-time faculty passed by a two-to-one majority.