That Union Thing
From AFL-CIO Work in Progress:
BEATING A BUSH LEAGUE ATTACK—Some 815 workers at Florida International
University made their campus the latest of four in the state to restore
collective bargaining with AFSCME. Florida’s unions were forced to run
campus-by-campus campaigns to prove worker support after Gov. Jeb Bush (R) this
year broke longstanding statewide university contracts and made the campuses
“autonomous” with separate governing boards. Workers in the administrative,
clerical and blue-collar units voted for the union Sept. 23 by a combined 4-to-1
majority.
REGAINING TENURE—An overwhelming majority of 1,500 faculty members at
Florida State University (FSU) on Oct. 8 voted to certify the United Faculty of
Florida, a joint AFT and NEA affiliate, to represent professors and professional
employees in contract negotiations with the university’s trustees. The union has
represented the employees for years, but Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and the legislature
reorganized the higher education system last year, forcing each campus chapter
to recertify the union. The operational service employees (maintenance,
custodial, groundskeeping, and construction employees) at FSU voted for AFSCME
representation on August 22.