Union stuff

I’ve been active in the Faculty Association (FA), intermittently, since my arrival on campus back near the end of the last century. I was president of the FA from the fall 2016 through the summer of 2020.

Recent union stuff can be sampled over on the FA website and on their Facebook page. I was responsible for most of what was posted on either while I was president, though of course most was vetted (and thereby improved greatly) by FA colleagues.

I was also in a FA leadership role during the crisis years of 2011-2012. One place to find materials relevant to those years is the old SIUC Unions United site. There’s also plenty of material to be found on my old blog, Deo Volente, which ran during 2011-2012 and then again in 2016.

Yeah, about the ostrich. It’s how a law-breaking chancellor pictured me and my colleagues when we dared to challenge her claim that a mild fiscal crunch justified breaking union contracts to furlough everyone on campus. Her administration was later found to have broken labor law by imposing those furloughs. Details on her ostrich image here. The labor board decision is here.