Gov. Gary Locke recently signed a bill that gives collective bargaining rights to state employees from more than 2,700 job classes — including faculty from four-year universities. Before signing the bill into law, however, Locke vetoed a portion that would have required a university to eliminate its faculty senate before participating in collective bargaining.
When asked if WSU faculty would join in the collective bargaining movement, now that it allows for a faculty senate, Tom Brigham, executive secretary of the WSU Faculty Senate, said it isn’t likely.
“What was passed is enabling legislation, it doesn’t require that a faculty unionize,” said Brigham. “It simply makes it legal for our faculty to do so if they choose. I see no real movement toward unionization on campus at this time. However, if the state government keeps zeroing out pay raises and retention funds, that might change.”
“Working conditions and salaries at four-year universities tend to have a lot more in common across departments than at research universities,” Brigham said. “The focus at research universities is on teaching and scholarship, with individual pay often connected to achievement and merit. Most faculty don’t want to see their salary and promotions determined by a collective process, are more likely to prefer it as a function of their own merit. That’s the fundamental and most valid reason WSU faculty would not be interested.”
