To the Point:

The state of your union

By William E. Scheuerman
UUP President

Unions are democratic by nature. They’re democratic because they’re created, governed and funded by the membership with the primary function of serving members, and UUP serves its members well. Over the years I’ve made a number of observations about the changes taking place within UUP that increase our effectiveness and ability to serve our members. I want to use this space to give you a short update on the state of your union.

UUP continues to grow. While other major unions are losing members, UUP’s numbers are increasing. In less than a decade, our bargaining unit has grown from 18,000 to almost 26,000. That’s one change. But there are more. Whether we’re at the bargaining table, in the corridors of government or pursuing our collective agenda in other forums, UUP makes a difference in the lives of our members. Our strength and stability are now paying dividends.

For years, we’ve sought to make UUP the leader among higher education unions in the United States. Our efforts have paid off. UUP has now assumed its rightful role as the nation’s leading higher education union. Today, UUP plays an instrumental role in setting the agenda for higher education unions in New York state and the nation. We set the agenda because our size and the seniority of elected leaders have put us in a position to chair the two most powerful higher education labor organizations in the U.S.: NYSUT’s Higher Education Council and AFT’s Higher Education Program and Policy Council. We also play an important role as opinionmaker. Academic and professional publications — as well as leading media, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA TODAY — seek our ideas on such issues as activist trustees, tenure, part-time faculty, distance learning and corporatization, to name the more obvious. Clearly, UUP has assumed a position of intellectual leadership in the higher education community.

Our union is also a major force in New York state politics. We’ve developed excellent relationships of trust with the executive and with legislators of both parties. UUP’s reputation as a rank-and-file organization with a united membership supportive of its elected leaders further increases our political clout. The hard work of hundreds of activists and the active support of thousands more are taking our union to places we couldn’t imagine just a few short years ago. Whether it’s high-profile legislation like new faculty lines — an initiative introduced by UUP and picked up by other higher education unions — or the more esoteric land-lease protections at Old Westbury and Farmingdale, we serve our members well in the political arena.

We also have a record of success at the bargaining table. Again this year, UUPers received larger raises than originally bargained, and we received them earlier than originally scheduled. We won these enhancements because UUP has earned the respect of the state’s negotiators and elected leaders. We earned their respect for a number of reasons, including the solid backing of our members in beating back attacks on tenure two contracts ago. The contractual enhancements just mentioned are one result of this respect; our growth in membership is another. Remember, the state looks at the ratification process, and UUPers ratified our last two contracts with record-breaking approval numbers of 94 percent and 96 percent! The time to appoint a new Negotiations Team is rapidly approaching. I plan to make the appointments early next summer. As we prepare for the next round of negotiations, the continued support of our members and our past successes will strengthen our hand at the bargaining table.

Internally, UUP is financially sound, democratically structured and committed to mobilizing new members. Our democratic elections provide a constant influx of new activists. This spring, for instance, UUPers elected 188 new delegates and 14 new chapter presidents, many of whom participated in orientation sessions. Many more will participate in the leadership workshops we’ll hold throughout the next two years. No union in New York state does a better job activating rank-and-file members and providing them with opportunities to develop their talents and skills in our collective efforts to serve the membership.

UUP is a creative and innovative union. One good example of our creativity is the new Enrollment Enhancement Program. When we learned that some SUNY departments and programs were experiencing declining enrollments, UUP convinced the state to use NYS/UUP Joint Labor/Management Employment Committee funds to recruit students so that under-enrolled departments could strengthen their base. But we do much more. To better identify and meet the changing needs of our members, we’re:

• undertaking a survey on family leave;
• launching a pay equity study;
• organizing part-timers both at SUNY and at private institutions across the state;
• working with legislators and the governor to save SUNY’s teaching hospitals;
• fighting to resolve the many fiscal problems facing our UCTs;
• actively protecting academic freedom, which is currently under attack at SUNY Maritime; and
• exploring the availability of grant money to support a UUP-sponsored research institute for public higher education in New York state.