MSU-Bozeman faculty consider joining the MEA-MFT family

Read MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver's remarks.

Read Bozeman Chronicle article on efforts to organize at MSU-Bozeman.

Read MSU faculty members' guest editorial.

Feb. 2008 - Whether you root for the UM Griz, the MSU Bobcats, or some other team, you're probably a fan of fairness.

If so, give a cheer for faculty at Montana State University-Bozeman, because fairness is what they are fighting for.

Bozeman is the last campus in Montana's university system where faculty members do not enjoy the protections and benefits of a union.

That could change soon. Faculty members at MSU-Bozeman hope to organize their own local union this spring. MEA-MFT is working hard to help them.

"Bozeman professors want a voice in their working conditions, benefits, and salaries," said MEA-MFT Director of Organizing Melissa Case. "They see having a union as a way for them to work hand in hand with administration to improve academic excellence."

Currently, said Case, faculty input often goes unheeded by university administrators and the Board of Regents.

"Faculty need to be part of the equation," she said.

"That's my number one motivation," said Bok Sowell, a professor of animal and range science at MSU-Bozeman. "I want faculty governance to have some teeth. Right now it has no authority."

Statistics professor Jim Robison-Cox believes Montana's entire higher educa-tion system would benefit if Bozeman faculty formed a union and affiliated with MEA-MFT.

"We've got to gain more leverage and persuade the legislature and Board of Regents of what our needs are in higher education," he said.

"It would be a big advantage if we had a unified voice in the higher education system. As it is now, when MEA-MFT people stand up and speak before the legislature, they speak for everyone except MSU-Bozeman." That, he said, weakens higher education's position.

MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver agrees, noting that MEA-MFT won significant gains for higher education in the 2007 Legislature. "Through our efforts, the legislature reversed a long downward trend by doubling the state's commitment to fund ongoing university system costs such as salaries and utilities," he said.

"We also won a long-overdue increase in the university retirement plan's employer contribution. These are huge victories that were a long time coming. Imagine what we can do when we are speaking for all Montana faculty."

Bozeman professors also mention low salaries as a key reason for wanting a union. Education professor Joyce Herbeck noted the disparity in salaries between MSU and University of Montana faculty. "Looking at the comparison in salaries, it's obvious (that MSU needs a union)," she said.

Perhaps best of all for Bozeman faculty, a local union will give them some real say in their working conditions, pursuit of academic excellence, and salaries and benefits.

As Melissa Case pointed out, "When you sit across from your employer and you bargain instead of beg, you're going to do better."

Read MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver's remarks.

Read Bozeman Chronicle article on efforts to organize at MSU-Bozeman.

Read MSU faculty members' guest editorial.