Requiem for the Twinkie?
Just after the New Year, Hostess Brands, the largest producer of baked goods in the United States, filed for bankruptcy. Formerly called Interstate Bakeries Corporation, the company had previously filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004. It emerged from what became the most protracted bankruptcy process in history in 2009 and renamed itself Hostess Brands. The…
“Right to Work” Isn’t Going Away, At Least for the Moment
Rand Paul has a new video online that is being distributed by the National Review. He asks viewers to sign a petition and make contributions in support of national “right to work” legislation. The video emphasizes three points about “Big Labor’s power of forced unionism”: It has crippled America’s competitive edge. It has forced countless…
David Levy’s Faulty Attack on Professors
The following is a guest post by Michael DeCesare, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Merrimack College. Yet again, the professoriate finds itself under attack from a misguided and misinformed administrator. David Levy, in a March 23 op-ed piece in the Washington Post, asked the very tired question…
Shooting Itself in the Foot: East-West University’s Anti-Union Campaign
By Tom Suhrbur For the past 18 months, East-West University (EWU) in Chicago has fought a vigorous campaign against the efforts of its part-time faculty to organize a union. In November 2009, adjunct (part-time) Professor Curtis Keyes contacted me about organizing a union. In January, I had my first meeting with the group and, by…
Michigan’s Attack on Graduate Student Rights
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed a new law banning unionization by graduate student research assistants at public colleges. It’s appalling that students are denied their fundamental right to form a union simply because they also happen to be students. Even if you dislike the idea of graduate student unions, you should dislike even more…
Faculty Should Choose Their Unions
I don’t often agree with Robert Weissberg, but he makes a lot of very good points at Minding the Campus about faculty unionization at the University of Illinois. Weissberg refers to a Chronicle of Higher Education article that emphasizes the tensions between adjuncts and tenure-track faculty among faculty union groups. But the reality is that…
Graduate Students Attempt to Revive “Comatose” NLRB, Demand a Decision on Union Recognition Case
By Jay Sosa Yesterday, graduate students from the University of Chicago handed a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) based in Washington DC, asking that they rule on the case of the New York University (NYU) graduate employee union by December 31. Sound confusing? Welcome to NLRB-land, where the board that adjudicates labor…
Strike Ends at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
The Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Faculty Association issued this announcement: The faculty strike at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is over. The SIUC Faculty Association’s Departmental Representative Council (DRC) voted tonight to end the strike after it was presented with a revised administrative proposal will form the basis of a tentative agreement to be…
A New Contract at Cincinnati State
From the AAUP website: Faculty at Cincinnati State have a new contract. “During the past few months of negotiation, the administration positions became increasingly extreme and the possibility of reaching meaningful, economically sound compromises seemed unlikely,” Cincinnati State AAUP past president Pam Ecker said in a statement. “Faculty members agreed to accept this contract resolution…