Summary of #FAMhearings

FAM continues to push for an inclusive collective bargaining unit for all full-time faculty at Miami. At a hearing December 12 and 13, a state-appointed judge heard testimony from Miami’s administration in support of excluding all except tenure-line faculty and from FAM in support of an inclusive unit. A summary is below, and you can read our coverage on Twitter @famiamioh.

Administration’s position is that only tenure-line faculty belong in the bargaining unit. Their four witnesses, all administrators, argued the following:

• Various classifications of faculty are evaluated on different work and therefore do not constitute a community of interest.
• A single bargaining unit would be inefficient.
• A single bargaining unit would cause conflict across classifications. Tenured faculty members wouldn’t work well with non-tenure-track faculty, who should be left out of the bargaining unit for their own good.
• Visiting faculty are “seasonal and casual” labor hired only as a stop-gap measure.
• Librarians should not be in the unit because they are not categorized as faculty.
• Staff who perform faculty duties are not categorized as faculty.
• Non-tenure-line faculty do not have academic freedom protections and are easily expendable; therefore, they do not belong in the same unit as tenure-line faculty.

Full-time faculty, librarians, and staff who have faculty duties all belong in FAM’s bargaining unit. Thirteen witnesses from FAM (representing TCPL, librarian, tenured, pre-tenure, and visiting faculty) argued the following:

• All faculty, librarians, and staff with faculty duties do similar work—teaching, research, service—on behalf of Miami’s educational mission.
• A single bargaining unit covers multiple types of faculty more efficiently than multiple bargaining units. The majority of collective bargaining units at unionized institutions in Ohio consist of multiple faculty categories, including librarians.
• Historically, administration, not tenured faculty, have made decisions negatively impacting non-tenure-line faculty. When administration made the hasty decision not to renew hundreds of our colleagues in 2020, over 800 signed a petition asking them to discuss other options (including tenured faculty taking a temporary pay cut).
• Administration’s expansion of non-tenure-track positions has exacerbated precarity; FAM is working to mitigate precarity and to establish better equity and job security for all.
• Visiting faculty are not “seasonal/casual” employees but essential, often long-term, faculty who share a community of interest with other faculty. Likewise, staff who have faculty duties belong in the unit.

The judge will make a recommendation to the Ohio State Employment Relations Board in spring. A union election will follow. Keep an eye on your inboxes for updates!

Find out how to join the effort at miamiaaup@gmail.com. Happy holidays!