Veronica Wilkerson Johnson

IDSL 895 - Week 3: Assessment on Organized Labor at LCC

July 5, 2014
Question 2: Describe the impact, both positive and negative, that
organized labor has made upon governance at your institution. Have
national and state labor organizations had an impact of governance at
your organization? For example, unionization of adjunct faculty have
created active dialog on many campuses.

As with many colleges and universities across America, the Lansing

Community College (LCC) in Lansing, Michigan is a union employer, a fact
that is recognized and appreciated by the LCC Board of Trustees. The
union contract provides for competitive wages and regular incremental
increases as well as improved access to medical insurance. It also
provides for recognition of faculty expertise, control over curriculum, and
immediate tuition benefits. (LCC-MAHE, 2014).
As Harold Cranswick and Eddie Genna at Maricopa Community College
stated in their video presentation on Shared Governance, Workplace
Democracy - dignity, efficiency and justice - must align with Shared
Governance - disseminating knowledge, academic freedom, and peer
review. Union representation helps employees gain this balance.
Understandably, the existence of organized labor at LCC has positive and
negative impacts upon its governance.
Examples of positive impacts:
Unionization at LCC has made the working experience for employees one
of inclusion, allowing for collective bargaining and the negotiation of
workers rights. It also has created a fair process in which all employees
are held accountable for the set standards of operation.
A negative:
Some employees waging disputes feel they are more empowered working
individually, rather than collectively, to represent themselves. This
approach negatively impacts the process that LCC-MAHE has put in place
to aid its employees through collective empowerment.
As an aid to our understanding, AAUP offers programs that promote
awareness of the important aspects of governance and faculty/staff
empowerment. The offerings they provide on promoting shared
governance and on government relations, in particular, help to raise
the bar for understanding and fairness in academic staffing.

Page 2
IDSL 895 - Week 3 Assignment
In addition to the local union, national and state labor organizations have
had an impact on governance at LCC. They provide cooperation between
employees and the college governing bodies, and there is ongoing
advisement from the National Education Association (NEA), the Michigan
Education Association (MEA), the greater Lansing labor coalition and the
AFL-CIO. While the NEA and MEA are education associations, the other
supportive entities, which represent a number of outside unions, many of
which are non-education unions, provide a strong collective force, and a
greater awareness for educators on the benefits of unionization.
A key point to acknowledge, however, is that while unionization of adjunct
faculty and other staff has created active dialog, it has also uncovered
concerns. Clearly it is beneficial to have adjuncts included in collective
bargaining discussions and agreements to ensure that their rights are fairly
met, but there are prevailing issues that adjuncts have experienced that
are not being addressed as quickly as they, or the governing leaders, wish
that they were.
Some of their valid concerns are as follows:
Adjunct faculty do not receive benefits. They have irregular pay based
solely on classroom and professional development hours they work, not
including the extensive preparation hours they invest in lesson preparation,
tutoring, mentoring and grading their students. Equally as important,
adjunct faculty are essentially "at-will" employees, though they are
represented under contract. There are several classifications of educators
that are higher than the adjuncts, and this hierarchy can lessen their
opportunities to receive teaching assignments. This is a concern given the
current decrease in enrollments and course availability generally, and the
fact that faculty are limited to teaching only in their degree field.
Most of the issues adjuncts face do not exist for their full-time colleagues
and other teaching classes, and the union contract does not adequately
address these inequities and vulnerabilities in a positive way to improve
the adjuncts' status.
As a part of this review I spoke with union leaders at LCC-MAHE, asking
what they would do if provided the opportunity to improve unionization at
LCC. They shared that they would heighten the understanding of the role

of the Union, and would encourage more involvement among staff, with
more members running for positions in the MEA and NEA as well as the
Page 3
IDSL 895 - Week 3 Assignment
appropriate Region. They think there should be more involvement from
staff and educators at LCC so that they can be considered for leadership
positions within the state and national Union delegation. This would
improve the position and respect of the Union at LCC, and it would elevate
the college's standing at higher union levels nationally, across the region,
and the throughout the state of Michigan.
References:
Lansing Community College (2014). LCC-MAHE, Michigan Association of
Higher Education. Lansing, Michigan.
http://www.lcc.edu/cte/pdf/orientation/FAQ_MAHE.pdf. Last retrieved 75-14
American Association of University Professors (2014). AAUP Programs.
http://www.aaup.org/our-programs. Last retrieved 7-5-14.
Maricopa Community College (2014). Shared Governance. Harold
Cranswick and Eddie Genna. http://vimeo.com/16323915. Last
retrieved 7-5-14.
Comments
Feedback 7/7/14 3:16 PM
Veronica,
YoudidagoodjobofdescribingthevariousunionsandtheirworkatLansingCommunityCollege.Most
ofyourinformationappearstohavecomefromaunionperspective.Wouldthecollegeadministrationhave
similarperceptionsregardingunioninfluenceandimpactonthecollege?
Don

----------------------------------