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After a year of bargaining, Western’s faculty union and administration cannot agree on significant working condition policies for the new faculty contract, said Bill Lyne, faculty union president.

Western philosophy professor Thomas Downing said he was opposed to the formation of Western’s faculty union because he doesn’t like the idea of further separating employees and employers.

Unions tend to make the university’s administration and faculty too separate from one another, putting people into either a management category or a worker category, Downing said.

However, Downing joined the United Faculty of Western Washington, Western’s faculty union, in February. He said he realized the faculty union’s recent negotiation process with the administration is the only way to get fair salaries, workloads and benefits for faculty members.

The union and administration sought help in the negotiation process and submitted a request for a mediator from the Public Employment Relations Commission in January. The union and administration’s bargaining teams have had two 16-hour bargaining sessions with Claire Nickleberry, the mediator assigned to the case, but have not reached any major agreements, Lyne said. Nickleberry declined to comment. 

Some of the major issues the faculty union and administration cannot agree on include how much professors should be paid, whether limited-term faculty need to be given priority in hiring and reappointing and whether faculty’s workload should increase, Lyne said.

The faculty union and administration’s bargaining teams met with Nickleberry Feb. 27 and Feb. 28. The only progress made in those sessions was an agreement for more academic freedom, meaning professors have more of a say in what they teach during class time, Lyne said. 

Downing said he thinks it’s irritating negotiations are taking so long, especially because other Washington universities, such as Eastern and Central have been able to reach contract agreements. 

“I don’t care about not getting a raise because I’m about to retire,” Downing said. “However, there are a lot of people who do need the money and aren’t getting it.”

Lyne said he thinks there hasn’t been much agreement because the administration and faculty union are so firm in their positions.

Lyne said he thinks Nickleberry has good intentions and is eager to help, but Lyne is disappointed the administration has not changed its views.
 
“We feel like our positions are in the best interests of the university, the faculty and our students,” Lyne said. “We keep waiting for some sort of explanation from the administration why [our] ideas aren’t good ideas.”

Eileen Coughlin, vice president of student affairs, spoke on behalf of the four-member administrative bargaining team.

There has been little progress because Nickleberry has only been present for two sessions and spent most of her time getting familiar with the two bargaining teams’ positions, Coughlin said. This is a normal first step in mediation, she said.

The bargaining teams aren’t going to find solutions by having one team sacrifice its views, but by both sides compromising, Coughlin said. 

Nickleberry will continue to work with the two bargaining teams until an agreement has been reached, Coughlin said.

Coughlin said she hopes the new faculty contract will be completed by the end of 2008.

Nickleberry will meet with the two bargaining teams March 11 and 12, Lyne said.

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