Documenting Labor Inside and Out
Union Democracy
NEA/NYEA vs. UUP at SUNY
United University Professions (UUP), the union representing the faculty
and professional staff at the State University of New York, had been the designated
collective bargaining agent for only five years when it was challenged in 1978 by the
New York Educators Association (NYEA), the New York affiliate of the National Education
Association (NEA). Although originally affiliated with the NEA, UUP had discontinued that
affiliation in 1976, following the lead of its own state affiliate, the New York State United
Teachers (NYSUT).
This was not the first challenge faced by UUP. In 1973, the Civil Service Employees
Association sought to become the bargaining representative for the non-teaching professionals
at SUNY. After conducting hearings, the New York Public Employment Relations
Board (PERB) determined that the SUNY bargaining unit would remain as it was originally
established, with both faculty and non-teaching professionals represented by one union--UUP.
The NYEA, however, sought to replace UUP as bargaining agent entirely, creating the need for a PERB-administered election to allow bargaining unit members to vote on who they wished to represent them. Throughout much of 1978, UUP campaigned for its continuation as bargaining agent, with the assistance of professional organizers from the American Federation of Teachers and field representatives from NYSUT.
The flyers UUP circulated indicated a strong belief in what
it had to offer members as compared to NEA/NYEA. The flyers also stressed UUP's familiarity with
the issues faced in a higher education setting, as well as the sheer number of its
membership and the resources that it could command to act on behalf of those members.
In the end, UUP won the representation election with 6,067 votes to NYEA's 4,092 votes,
and 1,156 votes cast for "no agent."
As part of its preparation for the representation election, UUP also commissioned studies of the attitudes of members of the SUNY bargaining unit towards unionization in general and towards UUP. One of these studies was conducted by Louis Harris and Associates in November 1978. The final study discussed in part the ambivalent feelings of some SUNY staff towards being represented by a union and towards New York State's agency fee law. (Under the agency fee law, enacted shortly before the NEA/NYEA challenge began, all members of the SUNY bargaining unit are required to pay a certain percentage of their salary to UUP as dues regardless of whether they choose to become UUP members. The agency fee law applies to members of all public employee unions in New York State.) Those findings are of interest because, although UUP has not had its position as bargaining agent challenged since 1978, some of those it represents continue to question the necessity of a labor union in a higher education setting and resent the automatic deduction of dues from their paychecks as required under the agency fee law.
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