From the #PFR archives: @NLRB Protects #ConcertedActivity

As re-posted from Portside Labor, which "aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it."The National Labor Relations Board webpage describes the rights of employees to act together for their mutual aid and protection, even if they are not in a union.

“Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all such activities.” -Sec. 7, NLRA

The page, at www.nlrb.gov/concerted-activity, tells the stories of more than a dozen recent cases involving protected concerted activity, which can be viewed by clicking points on a map. 

Joe Berry's COCAL Updates, June20

...news & links about #ContingentFaculty & #organizing in #highered. To subscribe to regular Updates, email joeberry@igc.org.  More about Joe Berry.  Updates are also archived at chicagococal.org. Follow COCAL International on Facebook. 

 Special Notice: Register for COCAL X before July 2nd for Early Registration Discount!  David Milroy writes, 

"We wanted to remind you that the COCAL X Mexico (English) is taking place on 8/9/2012 - 8/12/2012 at Avenida Universidad 3000, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Delegación Coyoacán, Ciudad de México, DF. We expect the available registrations to fill up quickly. So, we would like to offer you the opportunity to reserve your spot at a reduced early bird rate! To RSVP, click here . We look forward to hearing from you!  Thank you,  David Milroy." 

New study on adjunct assessment practices seeks interviewees. Survey overview, pdf. Emily Lopez-Padilla, UN-L, writes, 

Links: education & labor news

Not all or just about #highered per se but all relevant... even the accompanying illustration but you'll have to read to the end to learn why.

 

• Cut the pious baloney! about reactions to NLRB recess appointments (finally!)
  
• Jeff Bryant writes about Why accountants should not run schools (or set education policy)
  
• Disrupt Education (stay informed about changes coming whether you like them or not): Opening the Language Learning Classroom to the World 
  
• Bob Samuels takes apart Yudoff's defensive mythbusting about UC
  
• Best of the Ed Blogs: Misunderstanding & Misrepresenting the “Costs” & “Economics” of Online Learning
  
• Jonathon Rees at More or Less Bunk writes about Why there is no history department at the University of Phoenix
  

EWU News

from Curtis Keyes, August 24, 2010, Chicago IL 

Colleagues,

GREAT NEWS!

The National Labor Relations Board has decided to uphold our Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) claim that East-West University violated our federally-protected rights to organize an adjunct faculty union. This decision is a major and SIGNIFICANT victory for all of us who have given so much to the institution!! It will be felt for many years to come! The Labor Board has given EWU about one week to settle the ULP under the following terms:

• Erma Faire-Doeing, Ken Peterson and I will be fully compensated for summer classes that we were scheduled to teach but were taken away from us by the administration. 
• EWU will go back to the hiring procedures that it used during the 2010 Spring Quarter. 
• This means that the firings related to our union organizing will be rescinded. 
• While the pay raises announced by the administration for the 2010 Fall Quarter will remain intact, the University will not promise any "future benefits" to the part-time faculty as part of an effort to undermine support for the union. 

The fact that the employer took this action of giving raises in response to the "threat" of bringing in a union is a big victory for all of us since we have not had a raise since 2004. This is just the beginning. Even with the raises, we are still the lowest paid adjunct faculty in the Chicagoland area; once we have a union, we can continue to negotiate for greater improvements than what we are currently receiving.

If EWU does not accept the terms of this settlement, the Labor Board will issue a formal complaint and prosecute EWU for violating the law. The ULP trial will not only be very expensive for the University, but it will also generate a good deal of negative publicity that EWU can ill afford.