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Peter Cox

U faculty file petition toward union vote

U of M campus
University of Minnesota students and workers walked through the Minneapolis campus on Oct. 12.
Russell Barnes | MPR News 2015

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Faculty at the University of Minnesota filed a petition Wednesday to trigger a vote to unionize at the Twin Cities campus.

University of Minnesota Academics United hopes to join with the Service Employees International Union. The group consists of tenured, as well as tenure track and contingent faculty. Altogether, the potential bargaining unit is about 2,500 employees.

The petition has signatures from about 30 percent of that group, potentially enough to prompt a vote. The last time a large group of Twin Cities U of M faculty voted, the pro-union effort failed by 26 votes, according to the SEIU.

The faculties at the University of Minnesota's Duluth and Crookston campuses are already unionized. Hamline University's adjunct faculty unionized in 2014, and just ratified their first contract last month.

University of Minnesota administration cautioned the vote won't happen until the voting pool is certified. A statement from Kathryn Brown, vice president for human resources at the Twin Cities campus, said the U "wants to continue working directly with faculty on governance and terms and conditions of employment. We believe the current governance structure gives faculty a strong voice and it will continue to be effective in the future."

Organizers say a union would give them more input on the direction of the university—in particular to increase the number of tenured faculty and stabilize and give raises to contingent faculty.

Meredith Gill, a senior lecturer of cultural studies and comparative literature, teaches three classes a semester, and said even though she does "pretty much everything that a tenure line faculty does I'm paid less and there's not the ability for recognition and pay increases."

"I'd really like to invest myself in this institution and not feel like it's a waste," Gill said.

The U and union organizers will likely disagree on who should be in the bargaining unit.

The university categorizes tenured and tenure track faculty as instructors, but contingent faculty are classified as professional and administrative.

The two groups will likely make their cases for what that bargaining unit will look like in an administrative hearing in front of the state's Bureau of Mediation Services, whose commissioner will ultimately decide the size and scope of the bargaining unit.

Union organizers expect a vote later in the year.