Steven D. Krause

Last night, things during the negotiations took a decidedly “hard ball” turn: the administration gave the negotiating team a letter and published a press release (both on their web site here). In what I read as being written in a rather patronizing tone, the letter sort of summarizes the negotiations from the administration’s point of view (the AAUP is not negotiating, the university has made all these great offers, etc., etc.). There’s a nice line on the second page which says a lot to me about the perspective of the institution on all this:

To maintain the viability and competitiveness of EMU in the postsecondary education market, the University must maintain a delicate balance between the needs of our faculty and other employees, and the need to keep tuition and fees at levels that do not unduly burden our students and families. We hope you can respect the fiscal limitations and breadth of responsibility that weigh so heavily upon the University. (Emphasis mine).

Just to pause here for a moment: first off, I was under the impression that we were a state-supported and non-profit institution. So this phrase about “viability” and “competitiveness” in the “postsecondary education market” is a pretty weird one to me. Second, it’s telling about who we’re dealing with here. Whenever the administration feels like its employees are costing too much, we always hear that universities like EMU need to behave more like a business. But whenever employees and faculty point out things that they need to get “the business” done– reasonable building facilities, technical support, fair pay, etc.–the administration basically says “well, we’re just a poor university, doncha know.” I believe there’s a line here about having cake and eating it too.

Anyway, the letter goes on and throws down the gauntlet in these couple of sentences:

If we have not reached a resolution by 10:00 p.m. on September 5, 2006, or if the strike has not been officially ended by that time, regretfully the University will have no recourse but to immediately suspend all further negotiations with the EMU-AAUP until the strike has ended and all faculty have resumed the performance of their full professional responsibilities to the University and our students. In addition, the University will pursue such other actions it deems appropriate under the provisions of the Michigan Public Employment Relations Act, or other applicable law.

Whoa! Dudes! This is so wrong in so many different ways:

• Obviously, this is a threat, and I think it’s an unprecedented one at that. Not to mention an incredibly unproductive threat.
• I think that the folks in the administration ought to have taken a page from the Bush administration’s failures at foreign policy and recognized that whenever you make a threat like this (do “x” or else), the natural reaction of the “threatee” is “oh YEAH?!” I mean, I wanted to settle this thing before it even started. I, like I think most of my colleagues, am reluctantly on strike. But after this letter, I kind of don’t want to settle so that the union can “save face” and make sure that no one can possibly interpret our efforts to settle earlier than this as “caving in.”
• If the administration is going to make a threat like this, they sure as hell better be ready to follow through on it. That’s “How to Make a Threat 101.” Anyone who has been on either side of the “Quit that right now or I’ll turn this car around and go home!” conversation knows that.
• I’m obviously biased, but I kind of think the administration has sort of painted themselves into a corner on this one. If we get to 10 pm on Tuesday night, close to a deal but not quite there, and the administration gets up and walks away from the table because of the need to “follow through,” then the union will have the “high ground.” They’ll just say “hey, we were willing to keep working this out and we were just a couple of hours away– they’re the ones that left the table.” And if the administration does keep talking after 10 pm on Tuesday (and I frankly think this is the most likely scenerio), then their original threat will look pretty idle (again, see “How to Make a Threat 101”).
• I just see this strategically as a lose-lose for them, and I don’t really see how this makes the union look bad. I mean, we’re already on strike; people who don’t like unions already think we look bad. If anything, the union almost has to stay out now to “save face” with the faculty in the union.
• Oh yeah, about the illegal strike thing: technically, I guess it is illegal; but like so many things that have always struck me as odd in Michigan, it is apparently “standard practice.” The EMU-AAUP has been on strike at least five times in the last 30-odd years– three times in the last contracts, by the way– and no one has gotten into trouble yet. I don’t see the university firing 600-plus faculty members, and the best thing that the adminstration could do to bring attention to the union’s cause is to start arresting folks. Imagine the TV coverage. No, I think the worst-case scenario is the administration seeks some sort of court order to force us back to work, and what that would mean is a) the EMU-AAUP would say we should comply with the order, and b) faculty would be able to both work (which we love to do) and to strike. Talk about having your cake and eating it!
• There’s been a lot of wondering about “who are the bad guys here?”– that is, who in the administration is calling these sort of hardline shots. I think we need look no further than the folks who signed this letter, President John Fallon and Board of Regents Chair Karen Valvo. I somehow think that a lot of the “warm and fuzzy feeling” of Fallon’s first year in this job has just permanently left the building. So much for his “respect and value” for the faculty, huh?

I still hope that cooler heads will prevail. They’ve had a fair amount of coverage about all this this morning on WEMU, though it’s not available via their web site yet. Dennis Beagen, who was sent by the administration to talk about this stuff, said once again this morning that he thought (the administration thought?) enough faculty would cross the lines to make the university run fine on the first day of classes. Beagen is either lying and knowing it (because he was sent to the radio station to lie), has not been paying attention, or is just wishing that what he sees happening is not actually happening. Like I said in my previous post, there will be some faculty who cross lines and there are plenty of faculty who won’t picket. But I’d be very surprised if the number of faculty who actually taught on Wednesday without a deal was more than 100 out of close to 700.

And again, to give Howard Bunsis credit, he didn’t take the bait of the administration’s threat and was speaking positive about the chances to settle before classes start, the willingness of the union to work all night to make it happen, etc., etc. Again, I’m biased, but in a weird way, he sounded like the reasonable one here.

Which makes me wonder: who are the grown-ups in this car ride?

So, I walked into campus once again for a little time on the picket line. Originally, I had signed up to picket from 10 am to noon, but when I showed up to my appointed place, there was no one there. Someone reminded me that there was an email to eveyrone that said we were now supposed to meet at 10:30 am at a parking lot on the other side of campus. Okay, fine….

Anyway, I went over there, only to find that the instructions the organizers were giving us were (basically) to go back to where I was before. And then there was also a lot of sort of “mixed messages” about what it is we were doing out there and trying to say to students. Throughout this talk and the rest of the picketing activities, there was a lot folks saying that we didn’t want to scare folks or make them feel uncomfortable and all of that.

Which brings up a tangent:

I appreciate the work that the picket organizers have done so far, though, as I have said in previous recent posts, I personally think that the focus should be on bigger events, as was the case today. But I don’t think you go on strike or picket to make people feel good or to make them feel comfortable.

Beyond that, it’s kind of hard to “organize” faculty members, who most often behave more like independent contractors than the kind of workers who tend to make up labor unions. And I also don’t think that a bunch of middle-aged and up folks carrying around signs are really all that intimidating to anyone.

Anyway, we (and by “we,” I mean me and about 75-80 other faculty, which is a pretty good showing for a Sunday morning on a holiday weekend before school has even begun) eventually got sort of organized and were at the doors of the field house when incoming students were leaving to go on to their next orientation activity. We passed out flyers and such for about 20 minutes. Most of the time, I was with my colleague Ian and his very large and very nice dog, Tucker. Actually, Tucker was a nice ice-breaker because a lot of the students said hi and wanted to pet the dog.

After the students moved from one building to another (and thus were out of sight for a while), we all ended up hanging around for an hour or so. There was chatting, gossiping, socializing, etc., but just about everyone there seemed pretty “gung ho” about the whole enterprise of being out on the picket line. Well, I suppose that’s to be expected– who the hell else would show up for a picket on the Sunday morning before Labor Day?

I did get a chance to talk with Howard Bunsis a bit. Mostly he told me the sort of thing he’s said a bunch of different times in emails and the press and everything else. I asked him what he thought about our chances of making a deal before classes began, and he said 50-50. Which, I don’t know, I guess is good.

Then we organized a sort of a stationery picket line overlooking where first year students were eating lunch. There was a big tent where they were serving up food, and supposedly, John Fallon was in there, meeting and greeting. I don’t know about that; he certainly never came out to say howdy to the faculty.

Bunsis did talk to us all a bit when we were done picketing at about 12:15 or so. There’s not going to be any picketing on campus tomorrow, but the EMU-AAUP has a spot in the Labor Day parade in Detroit. And then it’s back to the lines again on Tuesday– unless we’re settled, of course.

So, once again, we’ll see what happens.

Bunsis said that his impression is that the administration still thinks that faculty won’t respect the strike and will work on Wednesday. I really don’t know if this is what the thinking of the administration actually is, but I think that’s bizarre thinking indeed. There’s no question that faculty have a lot of mixed feelings about the union and about a strike and all of that, that there are plenty of faculty who won’t picket for good and bad reasons, and that there will certainly be some faculty who will cross the lines. But that doesn’t mean that classes will go off without a hitch. I would guess that out of the 680 or so faculty in the union, probably 600 of them won’t show up to teach if we’re still on strike. In my department, while I can think of lots of people who won’t picket for all kinds of different reasons, I can’t think of anybody who is likely to cross the picket line.

And this doesn’t even speak to all of the other things that faculty do besides teaching, things like leading orientation sessions, mentoring graduate assistants, helping students register and schedule, and so forth. And believe me: if classes really don’t start on time on Wednesday, I am pretty sure there will be more faculty on the picket line, not less.

I have to think that most of the administration knows this. I mean, every time seems to be pretty much the same thing; why is this supposedly different?

Anyway, the rest of my “Labor” day weekend is going to be on getting ready for school with the assumption that it will start eventually, and it will start before my first class meets, which is September 11. But my hope is that I’ll be able to be working in my office on September 6.

One more thing:
I forgot to mention this earlier. As the EMU-AAUP web site indicates, negotiations are supposed to resume at 6pm Sunday night. The problem is the mediator isn’t going to be there until Tuesday. So for us to get a deal before Tuesday morning would pretty much be a miracle at this stage.

I did what I would describe as a little “light picketing” today; walked around for about two hours with a sign, up and down Washtenaw between the McKenney Union and the corner of Oakwood and Washtenaw, where you’d turn in to go to the library. This picture isn’t from that; actually, it’s from this article in the student newspaper, The Eastern Echo. And once again, it needs to be clear that are not “poised” to strike; we’re ON strike.

Anyway, there was a pretty good vibe out on the picket line today, actually. Folks willing to show up for a picket on a Saturday morning on Labor Day weekend before classes begin are obviously supporters of the union and, I think, supporters of EMU, too. So what was cool was there was this simultaneous feeling of supporting the strike, obviously, but also welcoming the incoming students and their families to town.

I talked with/listened in on a conversation with one parent who said he was a teacher and a former president of his local teacher’s union. They went on strike many years ago, and it was quite a surprise to the administration of the school district. They were out for a week, it was hard and painful and all of that, but they ultimately got what they wanted.

So far, sounds like the “happy ending” we’re looking for here, right? Well, then this parent went on to say that after this strike happened, which was years ago, the teacher’s union and the administration recognized that no one wins from a strike and they have figured out a process of negotiating contracts that was reasonable for both sides and so we wouldn’t have to go on strike.

And I guess that’s the issue here: why is it, after 30 some-odd years, we’ve been unable to do that here at EMU? One of the guys I was talking to on the picket line today has been here since the union came to pass, and as he said, it’s been the same damn thing every contract. That’s just kind of stupid, if you ask me.

But on the other hand, this is the situation we’ve got to deal with, so I guess you press on. I am officially scheduled to picket tomorrow from 10 am to noon, which ought to be a good time because that will be right when a lot of student orientation sessions are going on. Negotiations don’t resume until Sunday night; given that those negotiations are taking place in the student union at the same time as a big “welcome to EMU” student event, I think that’d probably be a really good time for another faculty rally.

My day has not exactly gone by the plan so far. First off, my gym is still closed, and, like EMU, will not likely re-open until after Labor Day. So I couldn’t work out and I still feel flabby. And then second, I decided that picketing wasn’t going to work for me today, mainly because it’s my son’s 9th birthday and I do have my priorities.

I did drive around campus on my way home and I did see that pickets are in place. But, and I don’t want to be picky about our picketing, I wonder if we’re taking the right strategy on the way we do this. It makes sense to me to post pickets at things like loading docks and the enterance points of construction sites on campus, especially since some of the workers in some of those unions (the Teamsters, for example) have it written into their contract that they won’t cross another union’s picket line. But beyond that, I personally think that the union would be better off organizing pickets around a few key places on campus and also to focus on some rally-type pickets at specific times. In other words, instead of it all being about 24 hour posts, why not schedule a picket/rally in front of the University House for noon or 1 pm? Why not keep the pickets up around Welch Hall? Why not plan a picket around Pray-Harrold on Sunday while the student/parent orientation is going on?

Just my thoughts. I don’t expect to be getting an email or a post from the union folks suggesting I organize something like that. :-)

Speaking of union versus administration folks: while driving around this morning, I heard both Hartmut Hoft and Howard Bunsis on WEMU radio. You can take a listen to these interviews yourself by following this link. It’s really a classic we say/they say kind of thing, but it’s interesting in at least two regards, I think. First, both sides accuse the other of not bargaining in good faith– in other words, there are unfair labor practice claims flowing out of both groups right now. Second, neither side of the table seems to feel the need/pressure to settle before the start of classes. As I’ve mentioned before, that kind of pisses me off.

Anyway, I’ll get back to this stuff in more earnest tomorrow. Today is the opening of my son Will’s birthday– really birth-week since he doesn’t officially have his party until Sunday.

Friday Night Update:
A few thoughts on the day at the end of it:

• My colleague Steve B. did some picketing today and said there were quite a few faculty up there with signs and enthusiastic and all of that. All a good thing.
• I heard a rumor (not from Steve B., I want to point out) that there had been some “significant progress” made today. At the same time, I’m not sure Howard Bunsis’ message to faculty has a lot of “significant progress” info in it. On the one hand, it sounds like some progress has been made on the biggest issue, health care. On the other hand, if you listen to Howard, it doesn’t look like a lot has happened with the other issues.
• The parties have decided to take Saturday off and resume negotiations for Sunday. I don’t entirely know what that means. Have negotiations progressed to the point that they think they can wrap this up on Sunday? Are we supposed to picket on Saturday even if there are no negotiations? Does everyone just need, you know, a day off?
• In the spirit of “piling on” the they say/we say thing, here’s what Hartmut Hoft said in today’s paper: ” “It’s clear, despite the university’s best efforts, that the (union) leadership was intent on striking and engaged in surface bargaining. They clearly had no intention of reaching an agreement.” I’m not really questioning Hartmut’s sincerity; I’m just saying that this sure as heck sounds like something Howard would have said, too.
• Speaking of Howard: he sent around an email in response to one the provost sent to everyone the other day. Actually, I got four copies of Don Loppnow’s email, which makes me feel like that’s giving me permission to post it here. But I won’t. Anyway, Loppnow predictably pleaded institutional poverty, and Bunsis predictably suggested that EMU is just loaded. I think the truth is probably somewhere in between, but Howard does have a point: it’s kind of hard for the EMU administration to claim that we are poorer now than we were a couple years ago given that EMU’s appropriation from the state of Michigan is $2 million more this year than it was last. And EMU has had to spend a lot of money paying off fired and/or laid off adminstrators lately, too.

But like I said, we’ll see, we’ll see….

This just in: EMU-AAUP President Howard Bunsis just sent an email out to everyone that says the strike is indeed a “go.” Given that this message was sent about an hour before the deadline, I guess this means a) neither side wants to blink, and b) I guess I’m going to lose the pool on the strike thing.

So, my “to do” list for tomorrow, more or less in this order:

• Go to the gym, mainly because the Washtenaw Country Rec Center has been closed for the last couple of weeks and I’m feeling the need to try to be a little less flabby.
• Picket. Probably with my son in tow, who will not be happy about it for all kind of reasons, not the lest of which is it’s his ninth birthday tomorrow.
• Make up for picketing with my son by going out for sushi. Yes, he likes sushi.
• Enjoy more birthday celebrations with both him and my wife.

And until the strike is over, which hopefully will be soon, I’ll basically repeat.

A colleague emailed me tonight and told me he liked what I was posting but he wasn’t as pro-union as I was on this one. Fair enough, though I guess I’d describe my feelings about the union as profoundly mixed for lots and lots of reasons that I’m not going to rehash now. But hey, that’s the way it is.

There will be a few folks who cross some lines and there will be a few folks who decide to participate in the orientation stuff this weekend. But if for some reason the administration thinks that the faculty union is going to cave now– after 30 or so years, after five or six strikes (most of which lasted only a few hours), after various ups and downs and everything else with this group– that’s just silly.

So, like I said, picketing at about 10 am; sushi at about noon.

Here’s what Geoff Larcom wrote/reported in today’s Ann Arbor News about the EMU-AAUP strike:

Faculty members at Eastern Michigan University voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to go on strike when classes start next week if they have not reached a new deal by the time their contract expires at midnight tonight.

(a bit later…)

Starting Friday, EMU faculty members will set up informational picket lines at selected locations throughout campus, with some spots being staffed around the clock.

I think this is flat-out wrong for a couple of reasons.

First off, the contract runs out at midnight on August 31. As part of the strike vote the other day, the collective decision seemed to be that the faculty have never worked without a contract before and we were not about to start now.

Second, and I guess this is what offends me more than anything else about this, faculty like me have been working already– in some cases, for several weeks. My department had its annual retreat today and all but a handful of faculty members were there. I have done little but work on school stuff since returning from vacation– doing stuff at school, sitting in on meetings, answering email inquiries from students and faculty, etc., etc. Any number of faculty will be working or not working during student orientation this weekend– more on that in a second. Not to mention the work that faculty traditionally do over the summer and most other times when they aren’t teaching or going to meetings, scholarship.

In other words, as anyone who is vaguely familiar with the way universities work (and you’d think that the guy who reports on EMU would know this), the work faculty do goes way beyond showing up and teaching classes. Just because I’m not in my office or performing in my classroom doesn’t mean I’m not working. Quite frankly, I sometimes wish that’s all it was.

So the pickets that will begin this evening (tomorrow morning for me) are not “informational.” They are the real thing. And if it comes to that (and I still think that’s an “if,” though I grow increasingly worried about my perhaps irrational optimism about all this), faculty know where to go and when to be there. Actually, the plans for the possible strike are surprisingly well organized.

Furthermore– and this is the real kicker here– faculty will be on strike during student move-in and during freshman orientation. This is a subject of some controversy, as I mentioned in my previous post, because there are some faculty who will be on strike during classes but who feel nonetheless to compelled to show up for the orientation events. I think this is a huge mistake, but at a minimum, I think it’s important that the administration and incoming students (and their parents) realize that the strike they are witnessing is not just “informational.”

But like I said, I still hope we settle.