BARGAINING the EIGHTIES a and A
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CAMPus· BARGAINING IN THE EIGHTIES A Retrospective and a Prospective Look Proceedings Eighth Annual Conference April 1980 AARON LEVENSTEIN, Editor JOEL M. DOUGLAS, Director ~ National Center for the Study of • Collective Bargaining in Higher Education 0 ~ Baruch College- CUNY CAMPUS BARGAINING IN THE EIGHTIES A Retrospective and a Prospective Look Proceedings Eighth Annual Conference April 1980 AARON LEVENSTEIN, Editor JOEL M. DOUGLAS, Director ~ National Center for the Study of • 0 • Collective Bargaining in Higher Education ~~,,,, Baruch College-CUNY TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Joel M. Douglas - Introduction ............................ 5 2. Joel Segall - Welcoming Address . .. 11 3. T. Edward Hollander and Lawrence R. Marcus - The Economic Environment in the Eighties ..................................... 12 4. Gerie Bledsoe - The Economic Environment in the Eighties - The Necessity for Joint Action ....................................... 1 9 5. Aaron Levenstein - The Legal Environment: The Yeshiva Decision ................................. 24 6. Joseph M. Bress - The Legal Environment in the Eighties - The Agency Shop . ..... 39 7. John Silber - Collective Bargaining m Higher Education: Expectations and Realities - A University President's Viewpoint ........................................ 49 8. Margaret K. Chandler and Daniel Julius - Rights Issues: A Scramble for Power? ........................................ 58 9. Jerome Medalie - Faculty Relations in Non-unionized Institutions ........................... 65 I 0. Ildiko Knott - Union Accountability: The Duty of Fair Representation ......................... 72 11. Thomas Mannix - The California Experience: Prototype of the Eighties? ............................. 83 12. Robert Grant - New Techniques of Conflict Resolution: Interest Arbitration in Iowa .................... 91 13. Esther Liebert - Faculty Accountability - Reality or Fantasy? ................................. I 03 14. Robert Birnbaum - Bargaining and Conflict Management: New Directions for Academic Negotiations . ................ 121 15. Benjamin Wolf - The Gray Area Between Due Process and Academic Judgment ..................... 130 1. INTRODUCTION This volume contains the prepared papers that were presented at the Eighth Annual Conference of the National Center which met shortly after the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Yeshiva case. The fact that faculty in "mature" private institutions deemed to be "managerial" had lost the protec tions of the National Labor Relations Act was the paramount development under discussion. Indeed, it seemed to push all other issues out of the limelight. The arguments of both sides had already been explored in depth at the Seventh Annual Conference when counsel for the University and for the Faculty Association summarized their briefs and rehearsed the oral argument they were later to give the Supreme Court. Further analysis had been provided by Woodley Osborne, counsel for the American Association of University Professors. (See Landmarks in Collective Bargaining in Higher Education, proceedings of the Seventh Annual Conference of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education, Baruch College, April 1979, pp. 18-46.) The participants in the 1980 Conference had before them the special analysis of the Yeshiva decision that had been prepared by Aaron Levenstein and re leased by the National Center only a few weeks before the opening session was gavelled to order. Since this document provided a background for much of the discussion that ensued, it is reproduced at the appropriate place in these Proceedings. Design of the Conference The objective, as indicated by the over-all title of this volume, was to explore the prospects for campus bargaining in the '80s, and to provide a retrospective and prospective look. That could be achieved only by examining the trends in two spheres: (1) the economic environment that is shaping up in the period ahead, especially as it affects higher education; and (2) the legal environment being created by the courts, by the NLRB, and the state PERBs, and by the evolving pattern of collective bargaining agreements. There was virtual unanimity that lean years are ahead. None suggested that the hardships would lessen the frictions between administration and faculty. As the old Swedish proverb has it, "When the feedbox is empty, the horses will bite each other." Even so, there was a growing preoccupation with the question of whether academics in general could influence public opinion to a greater acceptance of the importance of higher education - an area in which some joint action could conceivably be undertaken by "labor" and "management." Immediate Issues Nothing that is likely to happen under the rubric of cooperation, however, will erase the concern over immediate issues raised at the bargaining table, such as the agency shop and the division of authority between administration and faculty in the making of decisions that affect the institution. The participants heard the view of one university president on how history has affected the role of faculty vis-a-vis the president. 5 In smaller group sessions, the conferees pondered such matters as the status of management rights versus faculty rights; the evolving concept of union ac countability flowing from the duty of fair representation; and the responsibility of administration for clarifying, communicating and implementing standards of performance for the individual faculty member. With an awareness that the economic constraints were likely to make the bargaining process more acerbic, attention was given to new techniques of con flict resolution, especially "interest arbitration" as it has been developed under the labor relations laws of Iowa governing public employees and faculty in the state's higher education institutions. On a more conceptual level, discussion focused on the techniques of conflict resolution developed by social science and how they could be applied to im proving attitudes and restructuring the procedures of collective bargaining in higher education. A three-sided discussion - presenting the viewpoints of an administrator, a union spokesman and an arbitrator - dealt with the ever-trou blesome gray area between due process and academic judgment. An experi mental session brought together union leaders and top-level administrators for an off-the-record exchange of views. The Program As in past Annual Conferences, not all the participants were in a position to provide written texts. But it may be helpful to the reader, despite the omissions, to see the framework of the sessions: Monday morning, April 28, 1980 9:00 INTRODUCTION Joel M. Douglas, Director, NCSCBHE WELCOME Joel Segall, President, Baruch College - CUNY 9:30 PLE'NARY SESSIONS THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT JN THE EIGHTIES Speakers: T. Edward Hollander, Chancellor, N.J. Department of Higher Education Gerie Bledsoe, Director of Collective Bargaining, AAUP Moderator: Robert Helsby, Director, Public Employment Rela tions Services I LOO THE LEGAL ENVIRONME'NT IN THE EIGHTIES Speakers: Joseph M. Bress, Esq., General Counsel, NYS Office of Employee Relations Woodley B. Osborne, Esq., Nassau & Osborne 6 Moderator: Joel M. Douglas 12:45 LUNCHEON Topic: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN HIGHER EDUCA TION: EXPECTATIONS AND REALITIES - A UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT'S VIEWPOINT Speaker: John Silber, President, Boston University Moderator: Joel Segall, President, Baruch College Monday afternoon, April 28, 1980 2:30 SMALL GROUP SESSIONS Group A: RIGHTS ISSUES: A SCRAMBLE FOR POWER? Speaker: Margaret K. Chandler, Professor of Business, Colum bia University Daniel J. Julius, Director of Personnel Services, Ver mont State Colleges Discussant: Lawrence A. Poltrock, Esq., AFT General Counsel, Delong, Poltrock & Giampieptro Moderator: Julius Manson, Arbitrator, Professor Emeritus, Baruch College Group B: EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN NON-UNIONIZED INSTITUTIONS Speaker: Jerome Medalie, Esq., Eidett, Slater & Goldman, P.C. Counsel to Northeastern University Discussant: Neil S. Bucklew, Provost, Ohio University Moderator: Samuel Ranhand, Arbitrator, Professor of Manage ment, Baruch College - CUNY Group C: UNION ACCOUNTABILITY: THE DUTY OF FAIR REPRESENTATION (DFR) Speaker: Ildiko Knott, Prof. of Political Science, Faculty Or ganization, Macomb County Community College Discussant: Richard M. Catalano, Vice Chancellor for Faculty and Staff Relations, CUNY Moderator: Theodore H. Lang, Arbitrator, Professor of Edu cation, Baruch College - CUNY, Former Director, NCSCBHE PRESIDENTIAL ROUND TABLE An off-the-record discussion between college and union presidents, 7 or their designees, to exchange philosophical views on faculty-admin istration relations in the 1980s. Moderators: David 0. Green, Vice President, Baruch College - CUNY Irwin Polishook, President, Professional Staff Con gress - CUNY, Vice President, AFT Tuesday morning, April 29, 1980 9:00 Group D: THE CALIFORNIA EXPERIENCE: PROTOTYPE OF THE EIGHTIES? Speakers: William Krist, California State College, Pres., Congress of Faculty Assns., NEA/AAUP/CSEA Thomas Mannix, Director of Collective Bargaining Services, University of California System Moderator: Richard E. Wilson, Vice President, Governmental Affairs, Amer. Assn. of Com. & Jr. Colleges Group E: NEW TECHNIQUES OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION Speaker: Robert Grant, Director of Employment Relations, State of Iowa, Board of Regents Discussant: David Randles, Member, NYS Public Employment Relations Board, Arbitrator