Negotiations Required
Source: Inside Higher Ed
NLRB rules that college paying adjuncts based on credit hours was required to negotiate with union before cutting the credit hours (and effectively cutting adjunct pay) of some courses.
March 28, 2016
Many faculty union contracts include clauses that say the administration retains the right to make necessary financial and academic decisions. Likewise, many of these contracts include clauses that require any changes in faculty wages and working conditions proposed by the administration to be negotiated through collective bargaining, not imposed by fiat. Sometimes these principles may appear to clash.
In a case that has been controversial for several years, the National Labor Relations Board ruled last week, 2 to 1, that Columbia College Chicago violated federal labor law when it, in 2010 and 2011, unilaterally reduced the number of credit hours associated with 10 courses.
The move was challenged by the Part-Time Faculty Union at the college, which is known as P-FAC. The college also refused to talk to the union about the issue until the union detailed exactly how it wanted to resolve the issue and for months refused to engage in any negotiations at all -- also moves the NLRB found violated federal labor law.
The NLRB found the college's actions were so egregious that it ordered Columbia College Chicago to pay the union's negotiating expenses.
The credit hour issue is directly related to wages, the NLRB found. P-FAC's contract with the college stipulates that adjuncts are paid various wages for each three-credit course they teach and that courses for more or fewer than three credits are accompanied by prorated wages. So all those who taught the formerly three-credit courses received pay cuts.
FULL story at link.
Read more: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/03/28/nlrb-rules-college-must-negotiate-union-changing-credit-hours-courses