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Faculty organizers at the University of Minnesota at the Twin Cities are backing away from their formal unionization goal and instead forming a “workers' association,” the Star Tribune reported. Tenure-track and tenured professors and adjuncts in support of unionization had wanted to form a joint union, but the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled last month that they could not do so. That negated an earlier decision from state mediators saying that campus adjuncts now have enough in common with tenure-line professors to bargain collectively alongside them. Rather than appeal the state court’s decision, however, Minnesota Academics United said this week that it will lobby for better working conditions not as a union but as a workers' association. The group is affiliated with Service Employees International Union.
Amy Livingston, a senior lecturer in business at Minnesota, told the Star Tribune, “We actually think that there could be a path forward to unionization in the future.” In the interim, she added, “we’re not going to wait for a union or some legal process to play out.” While they lack the legal standing of unions, Livingston said, associations can organize protests and public pressure campaigns to push the university for changes in faculty working conditions.
Kathy Brown, the university's vice president of human resources, said in a statement to professors that she looks “forward to partnering with you to continue to enhance our workplace so we can help the university achieve its important mission.”
