A hearing on FAM's bargaining unit composition is set for December 12-13 in Columbus, and a decision on the bargaining unit and election will follow.  Latest news
As you likely know, despite state-confirmed supermajority support for FAM, Miami’s administration has objected to the FAM bargaining unit, seeking to exclude TCPL, Visiting Assistant Professors, Librarians, Instructors and research/teaching staff from FAM’s proposed bargaining unit. Miami administration want the bargaining unit to include T/TT faculty only, claiming that the groups do not share a “community of interest” as educators. FAM rejects the spurious assertion that we are more different than alike. A hearing on FAM's bargaining unit composition is set for December 12-13 in Columbus, and a decision on the bargaining unit and election will follow. Meantime, Miami can still drop its objections at any time. Keep the L.U.V. (Let Us Vote!) pressure on! Display your FAM swag, share the community ally petition, and join the caravan heading for the Columbus hearing. The university doesn’t decide the bargaining unit; SERB does. The objection’s purpose is clear: to delay, divide and demoralize Miami faculty’s union. But the fact that 9 out of 10 faculty unions at state institutions in Ohio include non-tenure-track faculty suggests that the State Employment Relations Board will support our proposed bargaining unit. We are one faculty and we will not be divided. No matter the outcome from SERB's decision regarding the bargaining unit, FAM is committed to supporting you in organizing a union and getting a contract. We believe we are stronger when all employees are covered under a collective bargaining agreement. We are stronger together. The work of educators not on the tenure track at Miami is valuable and necessary. All faculty voices matter, and FAM will fight the administration’s indefensible effort to divide us. Together we will defend our educational mission, our right to organize, and our rights to equitable pay and working conditions. Building a union committed to equity and justice requires inclusion. FAM aspires to create and promote a community in which all faculty and librarians (whatever their status, demographic or discipline) have a voice and a stake. Non-tenure-track faculty are shaping and co-creating FAM governance, policies, and practices in partnership with other faculty and librarians to generate democratic policies and structures tailored to the Miami setting. While those in precarious positions need the support a union will provide, we all need one another: the power of a union—and the power to win a great contract—lies in solidarity.
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 Don't miss the #OneFaculty FAMboree! Thursday, September 22, 4:30 to 6:00 pm in Bachelor Courtyard. Welcome new faculty and get your FAM L.U.V. (Let Us Vote!) swag!
Play games (Raffle! Cornhole! Fortune-tellers to help you discover your FAM Future!). Have fun building solidarity across TCPL, librarians, VAPs, instructors, and tenure-line faculty. Happy hour beverages (wine, beer, and soft drinks), light snacks, and friendship will be served. What: FAMboree Welcome Party! When: Thursday, September 22, 4:30 to 6:00 pm Where: Bachelor Courtyard (Oxford) See you there! FAM Organizing Committee famiami.org follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter  As we settle into the new school year, the Faculty Alliance of Miami (FAM) continues efforts to build a better Miami for everyone. With faculty and community support, FAM has made great progress toward building our union. But Miami’s administration is deliberately obstructing your opportunity to be part of a historic decision on unionizing. They should LET US VOTE! The state certified in July that a majority of full-time faculty and librarians support FAM. Miami’s administration can do the right thing by accepting FAM's proposed bargaining unit (all full-time faculty and librarians) and moving forward with a union vote. Or they can continue to stall — spending more money on legal fees, wasting resources better spent on teaching and learning initiatives on campus. On Tuesday, September 6, Miami lawyers confirmed that university leadership will continue their efforts to exclude non-tenure track faculty and librarians from our bargaining unit. Fighting this effort to divide faculty means a time-consuming formal inquiry—which could take several months, delaying a decision the majority of faculty and librarians already support. Enough stalling. Enough dividing. LET US VOTE. When faculty show collective strength, good things happen for teaching and learning, positively impacting the whole campus community. But replacing a provost or implementing a one-time salary increase is not enough. Faculty deserve a seat at the decision-making table. Let’s finish the work of forming a union. If the administration really cared about faculty, it would stop stalling, stop trying to divide and exclude, and LET US VOTE. We encourage you to get involved — wear/display FAM swag, sign the FAM mission, write a testimonial, spread the word about FAM's efforts, raise awareness about structural inequities on campus, visit the FAM website (famiami.org) and follow FAM on social media at @famiamioh (Instagram, Facebook and Twitter). A union contract will enable a more collaborative, transparent and mutually responsive relationship between faculty and the administration. Tell Miami leadership to LET US VOTE. Read the op-ed in The Miami Student and share! LUV to all. Let Us Vote! PS: Come out for the FAMboree at Bachelor Courtyard on September 22, 4:30-6pm. Have fun, hang out, meet colleagues! Meantime, be showing your LUV to our new faculty and solidarity to all, especially our non-tenure=track faculty. We are ONE FACULTY.   Cards signed by Miami faculty and librarians Great news! The Ohio State Employment Relations Board (SERB) has finished counting our submitted union cards and has confirmed via signed affidavit that FAM has majority support. This means that a majority of the faculty and librarians in our 1,000-person proposed unit supports our efforts to unionize. FAM has so much support, in fact, that it is legally possible for the university to recognize our unit outright if they wish (Miami, like most employers, will require an election—which we look forward to winning).
Miami leadership has tried to maximize exclusion by limiting the unit to tenure-line faculty. FAM is working with legal counsel to build a strong case for maximizing faculty inclusion, including non-tenure-track faculty and librarians. The final decision about the composition of the bargaining unit will be made by the Ohio State Employment Relations Board. After that, the next step is an election to form a faculty union. We will keep everyone informed as we move through this exciting process! Please spread this news widely! Find FAM on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @famiamioh. You can also help support our union and the upcoming election by signing the FAM Mission Statement and submitting a faculty testimonial.  At the 2022 AAUP Biennial Meeting in Washington, DC, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) launched an affiliation with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). This partnership enables access to the greater resources and reach of AFT while preserving the independence, professional expertise and experience of AAUP, with its 107 years of organizing in higher education.
A response to the university’s move to exclude non-TT faculty and librarians from our union We are stronger together. In a classic union-busting move, the university seeks to divide us rather than unite us. The administration has filed an objection to FAM’s proposed bargaining unit, which includes all full-time faculty (tenured, tenure-track, TCPL, and librarians). The university says that the unit should only comprise tenured and tenure-track faculty, claiming that we do not form a shared “community of interest” with other full-time faculty. The objection’s purpose is clear: to divide and delay Miami faculty’s union. But we are a faculty united in support of our educational mission, our right to equitable pay and working conditions, and our right to organize—and precedent suggests that the State Employment Relations Board will support our proposed bargaining unit. 
FAM team delivering petition to Ohio State Employment Relations Board
Great news!
With support from a strong majority of Miami faculty, the Faculty Alliance of Miami (FAM) is thrilled to announce that we have filed to form a union with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). On Friday, June 3rd, we submitted a petition for certification with the Ohio State Employment Relations Board (SERB).
 Dear Miami Colleagues, Congratulations on finishing your grading and on another impactful year of teaching, research, and serving our students and community! It’s been a singularly consequential spring for faculty and librarians at Miami. In January, Faculty Alliance of Miami concluded almost two years of 1-on-1 conversations during which we listened to the hopes and concerns of the vast majority of Miami faculty across colleges and campuses and learned that our colleagues overwhelmingly support unionizing. On February 2, FAM launched the public stage of the campaign to unionize, confirming the support of a strong majority of the faculty for FAM’s mission. Soon, FAM organizers will be driving your union authorization cards to the State Employment Relations Board in Columbus. FAM is pursuing a holistic vision to reinvigorate the teacher-scholar model after years of faculty cuts, increased class sizes and loads, and reduced time for research and teaching preparation. We’ve already seen the power of faculty solidarity, as the administration has pivoted toward faculty concerns in their communications and announced—months ahead of the usual timing—an unprecedented 4% salary increment pool. As the economist Matthew D. Hendricks recently wrote, "Since at least the late 1960s, education researchers have known that the most important factor influencing student outcomes is teacher quality… To improve student outcomes, colleges and universities need to promote policies that will allow them to attract, hire, and retain the best teachers.” Through FAM, you and your colleagues can ensure that Miami acts in its own long-term best interest. What FAM will bring to MiamiStronger shared governance
FAM will not solve all problems at Miami; this is a challenging time in higher education. But through a union, faculty perspectives stand a much better chance of informing and influencing Miami’s future. The collective power of a union gives you and your colleagues a firm stake in decision-making. Through the contract and legal grievance processes, faculty can participate in creating equitable outcomes and make sure that the university follows its own policies. Miami’s University Senate is an advisory body whose recommendations the administration is able to ignore. Only 19 out of 91 faculty seats on standing committees are held by elected representatives. And when 95% of faculty voted in favor of adding two non-voting faculty members to the Board of Trustees, it took the Board under three minutes to hear and dispense with the resolution. True collegiality Collegiality—the commitment to shared responsibility and care among colleagues—exists when all faculty have a voice and when the needs and perspectives of the least powerful, as well as the most powerful, can be heard. Collegiality is threatened when faculty employment is precarious, when faculty are afraid to speak out, and when decisions that affect faculty working lives and student learning are made in top-down fashion. Because a union contract offers clear guidelines, collaboratively developed through negotiation, there are fewer opportunities for confusion, disagreement, and strife between administration and faculty. Through FAM, faculty and librarians in all ranks and categories, on all campuses and of all demographics, will be empowered to improve their working lives. Let’s be boldly collegial! |
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