May 12, 2011. A message from new UFF-FAU Chapter President Chris Robé
I am writing to you as the incoming UFF-FAU union president. First of all, I want to thank outgoing president Jim Tracy and all the other union executives and members who not only managed to prevent the legitimacy of the university from going belly-up with the attempted firing of five tenured professors in Engineering two years ago, but also began to galvanize faculty in considering how to make the university a better place.
Two years ago it was nothing less than hunting season on tenure. After the Spring 2009 semester concluded, Florida State University administrators fired twenty five tenured faculty members. Along similar lines FAU terminated five tenured faculty in Engineering. UFF fought on the colleagues’ behalf and won all the positions back including their tenure. Needless to say, irreparable damage has been done to faculty morale that still lingers on in light of these maneuvers.
Yet, more importantly, the union started to mobilize by visiting faculty in their offices and in the halls to speak about what we could do better, how FAU could be improved, and what type of university they envisioned. Two years later a series of new initiatives have emerged. An Instructor Task Force has been assembled to identify three primary issues concerning the increasing use of non-tenure track labor: low wages, no job stability, and lack of a promotional structure. The union is currently engaged in talks with the administration about taking concrete steps in improving instructors’ positions here on campus. Ultimately, we would like to incorporate some of these ideas into our Collective Bargaining Agreement. If any instructors or other faculty would like to be a part of this task force or have any suggestions, please contact me at president(at)uff-fau.org.
Furthermore, I would start to like compiling instructor testimonials that will then be assembled into a newsletter and distributed to faculty. These testimonials can be done anonymously since I understand the vulnerability that most non-tenure track faculty feel. But it is important to relate our stories not only to the administration, but also to ourselves in order to become fully aware of how the university actually works. We must make this so-called “invisible” labor gain visibility. For example, what is it like being instructor? How does one survive on such salaries? How does one feel at department meetings? These are the things we would like to hear about from colleagues, document, and then make available to the broader faculty body.
Faculty members have also begun to assemble a Parental Leave Task Force conceptualizing the ways in which FAU might offer paid paternity/maternity leave to parents without requiring them to use their sick leave. Also, in the initial stages is a task force dedicated to assessing how children of FAU employees might receive free tuition. Finally, we also have an existent Domestic Partner Benefits Task Force. If any faculty members are interested in these issues, they should contact me so I can place them in contact with the appropriate people. The union, after all, is the faculty, and all of our initiatives come from the bottom-up. If you feel there are other issues that you would like addressed, contact me—but only if you are truly willing to place some of your own time and energy into seriously establishing them.
In order to stay better connected with our members, I am also initiating a Twitter account so that you can receive frequent updates concerning the union’s actions and important meetings that you should try to attend. Please follow: UFFFAU; or search for UFFFAU(at)gmail.com.
Finally, as most of you know, a strong contingent of anti-union representatives have been elected to the state legislature. They would like to see nothing less than not only crushing the union but the entire state system in the misguided belief that private business will somehow resurrect the economy and education. But one needs only look to the astronomical tuition rates of places like Nova Southeastern and University of Miami to see how such a policy will further disenfranchise working-class, ethnic, and minority students—the very student body that actually makes FAU a truly diverse and engaging campus—from attending college or being saddled with astronomical student loans. Pending state legislation wants to remove payroll deduction of union dues in an attempt to decrease membership. Pending state legislation wants to decertify the union if it falls under 50% membership. All of this is ultimately aimed at stripping us of our collective bargaining agreement where tenure, raises, summer teaching, promotions, and countless other rights that we take for granted are defined and become legally binding.
We need to keep building membership not simply to stave off the effects of such legislation but to become more powerful so that when we talk with the administration they clearly know we represent a majority of the faculty’s interest. We need to keep building in order to establish new task forces and rejuvenate our energy in making the university a better place where we want to teach and have our kids attend. If we truly want higher salaries, we need a greater density of membership, with faculty attending bargaining sessions and Board of Trustee meetings so our voices can be heard and physical presence felt. FIU, our sister institution, has over 50% union membership and not surprisingly has higher salaries and better working conditions than FAU.
My main job as president is to help amplify faculty voices, organize around our main issues, and assist in directing our energies in the most productive directions. If we truly believe that faculty are the university, then the union is the main vehicle where the collective faculty voice can best be heard and organized. Things aren’t perfect, and they never will be. But they can certainly get better. The question is: what can you do to make them better? The union will help you, but you need to get involved in order to find out how. Let’s make FAU into a truly inhabitable planet for all.
Signing off,
Chris Robé
UFF-FAU President