Dear colleagues,

I am writing with a remarkable postscript to my earlier message regarding the agreement we reached with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

This morning – almost immediately after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Regional Director approved the Stipulated Election Agreement – the SEIU filed a petition seeking to represent a group of Blair and Peabody non-tenure track faculty.

This new petition seeks to include in a bargaining unit the very same Blair and Peabody faculty members that the SEIU had agreed with us yesterday, March 28, should not be included. Moreover, the SEIU signed the latest petition seeking to represent Blair and Peabody faculty on March 28 – the same day that the SEIU signed the agreement with the university excluding those same faculty members from the bargaining unit.

As previously noted, the settlement agreement was a compromise reached after lengthy negotiations between the parties. We viewed this as a significant development that sought to protect our model of shared governance. These four schools/colleges are significantly different in regards to the students they serve, the programs they lead, and their governance models. We also continue to believe that our full-time non-tenure track faculty have vastly different roles and relationships with the university compared to our adjunct and part-time faculty. However, we were willing to compromise to reach the settlement on March 28 to allow a timely resolution.

The SEIU’s action today makes it clear that the university must proceed with extreme caution as we address all matters involved with the SEIU, including the election for designated Arts and Science and Divinity faculty currently scheduled to begin April 10.

We are also saddened by this new petition because we foresee it extending the legal proceedings, which we were trying to avoid.

We will continue to provide updates as we move forward. I greatly appreciate your patience.

Sincerely,

Susan R. Wente
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs