Decrease in Health Premiums?

In general, I see all health care issues as union issues, because faculty unions negotiate these benefits in collective bargaining agreements. That said, I have decided to reproduce Senate Chairman Sergio Lopez-Permouth's recent email. It raises at least two important issues: 1) We have no real agreement with the university regarding our health care benefits. Even though Faculty Senate has done a reasonably good job of preventing further damage to our benefits, we are at the mercy of the university; 2) University officials seem happy to spin this issue in an attempt to mislead some of us. Below is Sergio's message. Your comments are welcome.

Dear Colleagues,

As you all know, Luis Lewin, Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration for Human Resources, sent out an e-mail in the afternoon of April 23 informing us that our premiums for Health Insurance will be going down this year. Unfortunately the complete picture is that the decrease in our premiums has been partially bought through increases in employee contributions. Said increases will have a much larger impact on employee family budgets than the little reductions on premiums mentioned in Mr. Lewin’s e-mail message.

I find it discouraging that the administration released such a misleading statement promoting the impression that we have good news while the reality is that our salaries are frozen while our overall contributions to Health Care through deductibles and copays are in fact growing. To make matters worse, the net growth in our out-of-pocket expenses for health care hits those employees with smaller salaries the hardest, especially those whose families may be dealing with illness.

Please rest assured that Faculty Senate will continue to pursue this issue in support of all Ohio University employees.

Sincerely,

Sergio

Sergio R. Lopez-Permouth, Professor of Mathematics,
Director of the Center for Ring Theory and its Applications
and Chair of the Ohio University Faculty Senate
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
Phone: 740-593-1262
FAX: 740-593-9805

Faculty Senate Contact Information:
Pilcher House 202
Athens, Ohio 45701
Phone: 740-593-2640

Unionized Faculty Visit OU

Guest Speakers Discuss Faculty Unionization at Reception (The Post).

Many faculty have wondered how a union would affect our Faculty Senate. According to the article, "Faculty Senates on their (the guest speakers') campuses now focus on academic issues rather than salaries and benefits." The full story is below. Your comments, of course, are welcome.

A group of professors urging faculty unionization held a reception Friday for faculty in Ellis and Gordy halls to discuss the option.

The Ohio University chapter of the American Association of University Professors had wine and hors d'oeuvres available for faculty who came to hear four professors from unionized campuses in Ohio talk about unionization.

After the speakers - two from Wright State University and two from the University of Akron - discussed their own experiences on unionized campuses, they took questions from approximately 20 OU faculty who attended.

Questions ranged from how the union has affected Faculty Senate and non-tenure-track faculty, to how to sway anti-union or undecided faculty, how unions pick their leaders and the limits of a union.

The visitors said Faculty Senates on their campuses now focus on academic issues rather than salaries and benefits. They also recommended a lot of one-on-one interactions to convince undecided faculty to sign cards.

OU-AAUP is running a card drive to gauge interest in voting on a union. The president of OU-AAUP has said faculty who submit cards are calling for a vote, not voting for the union.

The answer to most questions, however, was that it depends on the campus. Each contract, union structure and negotiation process is slightly different.

Marsha Dutton, vice president of OU-AAUP, said she was pleased with the attendance and the event.

"(Turnout) was quite a lot better than I thought," she said, adding, "Every time I hear people come from other campuses, I get really revved up because they make it so clear that if you have bargaining power, you can make it happen."

AAUP will sponsor similar events in some of the other colleges in the coming weeks.

Unionize for Senate Control

Collective Bargaining Needed to Restore Senate Control (The Post)

The following letter to the editor was written by Phyllis Bernt, Professor in the School of Information and Telecommunication Systems. Your comments are welcome.

As a former Faculty Senate chairwoman and advocate for shared governance, I was appalled (though not surprised) when the deans unveiled their plans for reorganizing departments and colleges. What I found appalling was the lack of faculty involvement in the deliberations that led to those plans. There were no broad-based meetings with faculty to discuss the critical issues concerning curriculum, program development and promotion/tenure involved in such important decisions. Indeed the faculty in the School of Human and Consumer Sciences (whose college will be disbanded) came to the Faculty Senate in order to publicly express their concerns to the provost and to complain that their dean had refused to talk with them at all. The provost has said that the faculty will be allowed to "refine" the deans' plans, but that is too little involvement, and it happens far too late.

Not only has this whole process shown amazing arrogance (are the deans the only people on campus who have good ideas about how to organize departments and colleges?), but it also exhibits an incredible lack of respect for the faculty, who know their disciplines, their students and what is needed for quality teaching and research.

The Human and Consumer Sciences faculty came to the Faculty Senate to talk with the provost, not to ask the senate for help. That is telling, but not surprising. Many of those who oppose collective bargaining say that the Faculty Senate by itself can represent faculty interests. I no longer agree. I served on the Faculty Senate for 10 years, interacting with three different presidents and four provosts. For three of those years I served as Senate chairwoman. What I learned from those experiences is that the Faculty Senate only has as much influence as any given administration allows, and, over the years, administrations have accorded the Senate less and less influence, especially concerning issues of salary, benefits and working conditions. Indeed, the current provost has repeatedly said that the Senate should restrict itself to issues of curriculum and not play an advocacy role for the faculty.

As universities become increasingly corporate and geared toward top-down management, the role of the Faculty Senate, which is based on the concept of shared governance, becomes more tenuous. The balance in the shared governance equation increasingly tilts toward the administration; without an enforceable contract, the Faculty Senate will have great difficulty in righting that balance. A collective bargaining agreement can clarify the role and influence of the Faculty Senate and can provide a framework for negotiations in which faculty interests are strongly represented.

If I had any doubts, the way in which the planned reorganization has been handled has convinced me that the faculty at Ohio University need both an effective Faculty Senate and collective bargaining to represent their interests. An enforceable contract, negotiated through collective bargaining, can strengthen the influence of the Senate and restore the voice of the faculty.

CIF Should Debate OU-AAUP

Unionization Debate Persists Among Faculty (The Post)

According to The Post, the OU chapter of AAUP and the OU Committee for an Independent Faculty (CIF) both claim to be "gearing up for more debate this quarter." That's a good thing, as some faculty have yet to decide whether or not to support unionization. Although this blog provides a forum for those who support and those who oppose unionization to express their views, it would be helpful if the primary advocates of unionization (i.e., OU-AAUP) and the primary detractors of unionization (i.e., CIF) met in person to debate the advantages and disadvantages of collective bargaining.

According to The Post, Faculty Senate Chairman Sergio Lopez-Permouth volunteered to organize a forum for the two groups to discuss unionization. Although the OU-AAUP was willing to send a representative, Lopez-Permouth did not hear back from the CIF originally. According to The Post, the CIF is still discussing that option.

I encourage AAUP and CIF representatives to accept the Senate Chairman's offer to organize a forum (or two, or more) so that the issues can be discussed in detail and in a public venue. Should OU faculty unionize? That's a question that cannot be answered sufficiently via blog entries, email messages, and flyers. Let's resolve to debate this issue in good faith, and in a public forum.

As always, I encourage your comments.