Harper College Adjunct Faculty Association

Hope you are all having a great start of school!  Also, here is some good news coming out of East-West University downtown!

August 24, 2010

Dear Colleagues,

GREAT NEWS!!!!!!

The National Labor Relations Board has decided to uphold our Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) claim that East-West University violated our federally-protected rights to organize an adjunct faculty union. This decision is a major and SIGNIFICANT victory for all of us who have given so much to the institution!! It will be felt for many years to come! The Labor Board has given EWU about one week to settle the ULP under the following terms:

Ø  Erma Faire-Doeing, Ken Patterson and I will be fully compensated for summer classes that we were scheduled to teach but were taken away from us by the administration.

Ø  EWU will go back to the hiring procedures that it used during the 2010 Spring Quarter. This means that the firings related to our union organizing will be rescinded.

Ø  While the pay raises announced by the administration for the 2010 Fall Quarter will remain intact, the University will not promise any “future benefits” to the part-time faculty as part of an effort to undermine support for the union.

The fact that the employer took this action of giving raises in response to the “threat” of bringing in a union is a big victory for all of us since we have not had a raise since 2004. This is just the beginning. Even with the raises, we are still the lowest paid adjunct faculty in the Chicagoland area; once we have a union, we can continue to negotiate for greater improvements than what we currently receiving.

If EWU does not accept the terms of this settlement, the Labor Board will issue a formal complaint and prosecute EWU for violating the law. The ULP trial will not only be very expensive for the University, but it will also generate a good deal of negative publicity that EWU can ill afford.

Meeting with Congressman Danny DavisOur delegation (Erma Faire-Doeing, IEA Organizers, Willie David Fuller, an EWU alum and I) met with the Congressman this morning.  Davis is a member of the EWU Board of Trustees.  We asked him to urge the EWU administration to accept the Labor Board’s offer to settle our ULP. Congressman Davis has always been a supporter of the labor union movement.  He was extremely gracious and promised to speak to the administration about the issue.

If EWU refuses to comply with terms of the settlement, we will continue to protest publicly its anti-union animus. We are committed to ensuring that all EWU adjuncts are treated fairly and respectfully.

Sincerely, 

Curtis M. Keyes, Jr.

Founder of the United Adjunct Faculty Association at EWU

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