MSU faculty to vote on whether to keep union

BOZEMAN (AP) — Ballots were mailed out Wednesday to Montana State University professors who will decide whether to keep their faculty union.

The ballots went to 400 tenured and tenure-track professors after more than 30 percent of the professors requested a union decertification vote with the state Department of Labor and Industry.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that professors disagree whether the Associated Faculty of MSU has won better pay raises or benefits, caused the faculty to be treated more fairly or resulted in a more democratic campus.

"Many feel the union is a negative force on campus that has hurt teaching and scholarship, and has made a once-collegial environment adversarial," said Bennett Link, physics professor and a proponent of decertification.

Decertification supporters say the union has added to the bureaucracy and has resulted in only a small group of active members making decisions.

Union president Sandy Osborne said it has given the faculty a stronger voice. She counts among its successes substantial increases for sabbaticals, a 2 percent pay raise for professors' promotions and $200,000 a year for merit and market pay raises.

The union was formed in 2009 by a 12-vote margin, 168 to 156.

That first negotiated contract is only 2 years old and it would be wise to "stay the course" and make the union better instead of eliminating it, Osborne said.

Before MSU unionized, the University of Montana's faculty union in Missoula would bargain for raises "and we'd get the leftovers, or try to get the same," said Jim Robison-Cox, an associate professor of math and a union supporter.

But physics professor Randy Babbitt said the union has made it harder to discuss important issues with administrators.

"We're all silenced," Babbitt said. "We develop new knowledge through debate and discussion. This puts up barriers. You can't generate new knowledge if you're afraid of what to say."

Ballots must be signed and received by the department's collective bargaining unit in Helena by April 16.

The vote doesn't affect the AFMSU union, which represents about 200 MSU adjunct or non-tenured faculty members.

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