Thread by @famiamioh

The university’s lawyers begin their cross examination of John McNay, who clarifies that the UC bargaining unit is roughly 65% tenure eligible and 35% non tenure eligible, and librarians are included in the unit too #FAMhearings

The university lawyer seems to believe that different ranks of faculty can’t participate in bargaining on behalf of other ranks. John clarifies “We don’t see those distinctions. We are one faculty, and we understand each other’s needs perfectly well.”

“All the faculty have academic freedom. That runs counter to what we heard yesterday,” says John. “We don’t believe that academic freedom is only for tenure-line faculty.” #FAMhearings

“How is it efficient to bargain with other ranks of faculty in the same unit?”
“I don’t know about efficiency, but in terms of fairness, it’s the only way to go.” ~John McNay #FAMhearings

On an Akron contract about retrenchment, McNay clarifies: “Without the contract, we’d have to trust the administration not to do what they did do, and what you’re saying the union would do—let go all NTT faculty” TRUTH TELLING IN THE HEARINGS!! #FAMhearings

The university lawyer is turtling us again, asking John to go through tedious clauses of labor contracts at various institutions in their cross exam. 🐢🐢🐢

The university’s lawyers seem to be making FAM’s case for us: that bargaining agreements can include articles that address the issues of different ranks of faculty #FAMhearings #ThanksIGuess #ProvingOurPoint

The university lawyer likes the corporate buzzword “efficient” over fairness and equity, which is what the contract is actually addressing, says McNay

FAM’s lawyer: “is it more ‘efficient’ to negotiate a single bargaining agreement, or 5 different ones?” John: “It’s much more efficient to negotiate a single agreement.”

“With a single bargaining unit, faculty have the power to actually have a voice at the university.” -John McNay

“United we bargain, divided we beg.” ~John McNay

“For example,” says John, “at UC regional faculty, a minority in the unit, were given a 19.5% salary equity adjustment after the unit advocated for us. We had been complaining about our salaries for years with no consequence until the union changed our contract.” #TruthToPower