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Our Position...
We feel strongly about the need for a union at Illinois State
University. Please read this article
to see why it is important to Unionize NOW!
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Some Accurate
Information about Dues and Salaries
We appreciate the
willingness of our colleagues to take part in this discussion. We
patiently wait, however, to hear solutions from union opponents for
the problems NTTs face. Meanwhile, as union supporters, our
frustration has been the many repeated inaccuracies and distortions
submitted by our opponents.
For instance, Jim Munz claims -- as the Administration has led many
of us to believe -- that we will begin paying dues immediately.
This is simply false. Fair share is a negotiated contract
provision, and it can not be implemented until the contract is
ratified. Typically, it takes several months to negotiate a first
contract, so IF fair share is something that the Administration and
the NTTFA agree to, the first fair share payments would not take
place until the 2004-05 school year.
Why do the Administration and Munz, a former school board member who
should know better, spread misinformation? The administration has
spent tens of thousands of dollars during this "crisis year" to
fight NTT efforts. They fought hard to keep most of us from even
participating in this democratic process. Why does the
Administration treat NTT faculty with such disrespect?
Union opponents concede that unions do make a difference. In Munz’s
school district, teacher salaries range from $28,400 to $57,000 per
year. In the community college district from which Glenn Bailey
retired, Sauk Valley, salaries range from $26,400 (for vocational
instruction--no bachelor's degree needed) to over $62,000.
We think that all NTTs should be treated as fairly. An
average salary of less than $30,000 for university faculty is simply
unjustified and unacceptable.
Where will the money come from for our pay raises? If the
Administration can afford a $7,000 pay raise this year (when the
rest of us received no raises) for an assistant provost who's
already making more than $120,000, it can find money for pay equity
for the 40% of employees who are classroom instructors. If the
Administration can afford raises of 10% to 25% for top
administrators, then the Administration can afford raises for
nontenure track faculty. If not this year, then we'll get it when
budgets do improve. In January of this year, unionized
professors at SIU Carbondale negotiated raises of 7.5% above the
state appropriation over the next three years.
What we haven't heard from union opponents is how NTT faculty
will ever obtain job security, equitable pay, timely notification of
contracts, a fair re-hiring policy (or any re-hiring policy, for
that matter), accumulation of our sick leave benefits, or a fair
grievance procedure. What concrete solutions do our opponents offer
to these problems?
We won't get the things we need and deserve unless we vote for a
union on Wednesday.
Please vote for the NTT Faculty Association on April 23.
Thank you,
Sharon S. MacDonald
For more information about dues, click
here. |
