Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Q: In addition to claiming that a collective bargaining agreement will give the faculty “legally enforceable shared governance,” the union organizers claimed in their March 2009 newsletter that organized Ohio four year public universities: “have contractual guarantees of shared governance….” How has shared governance fared at unionized campuses?

A: To test the accuracy of this claim, BGSU faculty can read other collective bargaining agreements and draw their own conclusions about what governance rights those agreements afford faculty and how those rights differ, if at all, from the governance rights BGSU faculty presently have under the BGSU Academic Charter. All the Ohio university collective bargaining agreements can be accessed from the SERB Web site.

Faculty considering this issue should pay particular attention to the contract sections titled “Management Rights.” (Footnote 1)

The University of Toledo collective bargaining agreement specifically limits shared governance to only “academic governance” and “academic policy.” See Article 7.0.

The Kent State 2005-2008 collective bargaining agreement in Article VI is another example of a contract clause addressing governance. In this section, the KSU faculty’s governance participation is specifically described as being “advisory and recommendatory.”

The Kent State collective bargaining agreement on governance states in Article VI: “Accordingly, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the University and of the Association to cooperate in providing to members of the Faculty meaningful advisory and recommendatory participation in the governance of the University…”

The union organizers should be asked how the faculty “advisory and recommendatory participation” role under the KSU collective bargaining agreement differs from the shared governance the BGSU faculty presently have under the BGSU Academic Charter.

Especially relevant to testing the organizers’ claim that governance may be “legally enforceable” at Kent State is that Article VI of the KSU collective bargaining agreement specifically exempts governance issues from the grievance procedure of the agreement.

The BGSU faculty should ask the union organizers: What is “legally enforceable” about the KSU contract governance clause when it is specifically exempted from the contract’s grievance procedure?

Footnote 1: For example, this passage from the University of Akron collective bargaining agreement is illustrative:

ARTICLE 3
MANAGEMENT RIGHTS
Section 1. Recognizing that Ohio law vests full authority and responsibility for the operation of the University in the Board of Trustees and restricts the power of the Board to delegate its authority and responsibility, the University, acting by and through its duly constituted authorities, retains and reserves exclusively to itself all rights, powers, prerogatives, responsibilities, and authority vested in it, whether exercised or not.

Section 2. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, it is understood and agreed that, except as otherwise provided in this Agreement, the Board has the right to adopt new or modify or terminate existing rules, policies, regulations, and procedures in furtherance and accomplishment of its statutorily mandated authorities and responsibilities. The Board shall also have the right to take any action it considers necessary and proper to effectuate any management right reserved to it by Section 4117.08(C) of the Ohio Revised Code, including:

A. Determine matters of inherent managerial policy which include, but are not limited to areas of discretion or policy such as the functions and programs of the public employer, standards of services, its overall budget, utilization of technology, and organizational structure;

B. Direct, supervise, evaluate, or hire employees;

C. Maintain and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of governmental operations;

D. Determine the overall methods, process, means, or personnel by which governmental operations are to be conducted;

E. Suspend, discipline, demote, or discharge for just cause, or lay off, transfer, assign, schedule, promote, or retain employees;

F. Determine the adequacy of the work force;

G. Determine the overall mission of the employer as a unit of government;

H. Effectively manage the work force;

I. Take actions to carry out the mission of the public employer as a governmental unit.