Athens campus faculty continued discussions about forming a union last week and are planning additional forums that will also reach out to regional campus faculty, who say they are excited about the prospect of unionization.
About 35 Ohio University faculty members attended a forum where the associate secretary of the American Association of
University Professors and two faculty members from Wright State University, which unionized under the AAUP in 1999, fielded questions on the steps for establishing a union.
I thought it went quite well
said Marsha Dutton, vice president of OU-AAUP.
OU-AAUP is currently conducting a card drive, which asks faculty to sign and return cards if they want to vote on a union.
If the drive receives more than a 30 percent response, the State Employment Relations Board will organize a vote on unionization. The AAUP does not have an exact count of returned cards at this point, Dutton said.
Rudy Fichtenbaum, chief negotiator for Wright State's chapter, said he wasn't surprised by the questions.
People are asking the right questions and trying to learn from the experience of people at other universities he said.
Faculty wanted to know about raises, union dues ' usually 0.5 to 1 percent of a professor's base salary ' and whether a union will really solve problems they see in governance, according to Patrick Shaw, a labor lawyer and AAUP's associate secretary.
Michael Nern, who has taught at OU-Zanesville for 22 years, said he thinks the 50-some faculty on that campus are educated about their options and ready for a union.
I think our campus will turn out for the card drive faster than any other campus Nern said. We could have done this years ago on our campus
but we're not legally allowed to on our own.
Nern said Zanesville faculty have grown frustrated over the past few years at what they perceive to be heavy-handed interference from administrators in Athens.
Dennis Deane, a professor of fine arts at OU-Chillicothe, said he was surprised to find about two thirds of the faculty supported at least discussing a union when he did an informal survey recently.
I think AAUP has got to begin a really very concerted information outpouring to maintain the momentum
Deane said.
Dutton said OU-AAUP intends to organize more forums, something many faculty members encourage.
Toby Stock, a College of Business faculty senator, has been pushing for more information on unions since September. He said he could not attend last week's meeting because he was teaching, but he hopes future forums will be scheduled at more accommodating times.
When they put it right in the middle of the day Tuesday
they're going to lose half the faculty right there
Stock said. It's not like we don't care.
Dutton said they will also try to hold forums on regional campuses.
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