NLRB Rules In Favor of Chicago's Columbia College
Professors
BY KARI LYDERSEN
TUESDAY JUL 31, 2012 12:50 PM
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13596/nlrb_rules_in_favor_of_chicagos_columbia_college_professors/


Unionized part-time faculty at Columbia College in
Chicago gained a major victory, union leaders say, when
the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a
ruling about the way classes are assigned and the
administration's failure to turn over requested
documents that shed light on the process.

In years past, experienced part-time faculty at the arts
and media-focused college in downtown Chicago typically
could expect to teach the same classes year after year,
in a process known as "rollover." But around 2010,
according to P-fac (Part-Time Faculty Association at
Columbia College) President Diana Vallera, senior
part-time faculty were not being assigned to expected
classes, often finding them given to newly hired
part-timers.

"If you've been there some time you have certain
expectations of income, and you rely on that income,"
Vallera says. "It was devastating for a lot of our
members--especially since those classes were still
available."

This is among several issues being debated in
contentious negotiations stretching since the union's
last four-year contract expired in 2010, and was
indefinitely extended. For eight months, according to
the union, administrators have refused to meet with
them, so bargaining has been at a stalemate.

On July 17 NLRB administrative law judge Robert A.
Ringler ruled in favor of the union on unfair labor
practice charges related to the rollovers and documents
requested by the union to analyze how the school was
assigning classes. The NLRB found that the actual class
assignment policy was not an issue that could be covered
by bargaining, but the impact of the change on union
members is subject to bargaining. The judge also said
the administration must turn over the documents the
union requested.

Columbia College declined to respond to specific
questions for this story, and sent a statement:

We strongly disagree with the Administrative Law Judge's
decision and will continue to make those objections
through the appropriate processes. Columbia has always
engaged in good faith bargaining and will continue to do
so. Our focus remains on the educational and financial
well-being of our students, along with the vitality and
quality of the College itself.

Vallera says the hiring of new part-time teachers
instead of senior adjuncts is unfair to students as well
as teachers.

"These are faculty with lots of experience," she says.
"This is about not valuing their faculty, but it's also
about what's best for students and student learning."

Vallera says it is unclear exactly why the
administration is replacing senior instructors with
newer ones or administrators--"we're seeing deans
teaching classes." It is likely a cost-saving measure
and possibly also a move to reduce the union's power as
the contract negotiations drag on.

"Maybe they're trying to negatively affect the
membership by having our senior members losing classes,
but if so that backfired because senior members were
upset and came to the union and got involved," Vallera
says.

Vallera hopes the decision will mean renewed
negotiations between the college and the part-timers
union, which has about 900 members. She says school
officials have offered to meet with the union every
three weeks for two hours, but union leaders don't think
that is sufficient given that past negotiations were
held for at least three hours every week.

"I think this kind of decision is a step in the right
direction and has gotten people involved in bargaining,"
Vallera says. "Hopefully they will bargain in good faith
at this point, not just on the effects of these changes
because they're forced to but also on the contract.
Hopefully we won't have to take further action on that."

Judge Ringler chided the administration for failing to
turn over documents and information requested by the
union in December 2010, including lists of adjuncts
whose classes were canceled and reasons for class
assignment switches. 

The ruling says:

In addition to an employer's duty to provide necessary
and relevant information, "an unreasonable delay in
furnishing such information is as much a violation of
the Act as a refusal to furnish the information at all.

The NLRB also ordered 18 part-timers with classes
canceled must be paid the equivalent of a three-credit
course, with interest, about $4,700. The ruling said:

Meaningful bargaining cannot be assured until some
measure of economic strength is restored to the Union; a
bargaining order alone, therefore, cannot serve as an
adequate remedy for the unfair labor practices committed.

____________________________________________

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