The general Illinois Labor Relations Board states:
Q. What is a showing of interest?SOURCE: http://www.state.il.us/ilrb/subsections/frequent/index.asp
A. A showing of interest is evidence 1) in the case of a representation petition or intervention petition, that an employee desires to represented by a particular labor organization or 2) in the case of a decertification petition, that an employee no longer wishes to be represented by the labor organization which is the current exclusive bargaining representative. Such evidence may consist of authorization cards or petitions that are signed, dated and clearly state the employee’s intent. The cards and petitions are valid for 12 months following the date of the employee signatures. The Board maintains the confidentiality of the cards and petitions submitted to support the showing of interest. (Section 1210.80 of the Rules). [BOLD ADDED FOR EMPHASIS]
The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board is silent on the issue but does say the certification by one or more unions must be by "secret" ballot and have the "no union" choice (two rival unions may also vie to represent faculty).
If the FA has contrary evidence, I'm sure they will let this blogger know.
FSN needs 30% of faculty signed to have a new election as described below. Seems like a high hurdle but who knows? In general, while I am a FA member, I do believe all so-called "democratic organizations" ought to face a vote of confidence every set number of years. The law doesn't mandate such votes but there is nothing to stop those -- like the FSN -- for seeing whether the faculty of 2011 agree with the faculty of 1996 (the ones who originally got representation rights via union election).
Without further ado, here is the FSN message:
"Faculty,
Attached to this email is asignature card associated with the Faculty for Sensible Negotiations’ (FSN) effort
to initiate an Illinois Education Labor Relations Board (IELRB) ballot to
determine whether tenured and tenure (T/TT) track faculty at SIUC wish to
continue to be represented by the Faculty Association (FA) as our exclusive
collective bargaining agent. An
identical signature card also will be placed in your campus mailbox. Once signatures have been collected from 30%
or more of T/TT faculty, the cards will be forwarded to the IELRB to bring
forth a formal a vote on replacement of the Faculty Association with the SIU
Representative Faculty Committee (seeattached white paper for a conceptual outline), retention of the Faculty
Association, or decertification of the FA with no replacement. We would prefer to have cards returned by Friday, 4 November but will gladly
accept cards after that date.
The university administration
cannot support this action in any way.
Do not use university resources (i.e., ink and paper) to print these
cards. Once signed, return your card to
any individual listed on the signature card by placing it in their campus
mailbox or hand delivery to the listed office address. Please contact a listed FSN representative if
you are concerned about retribution for supporting this process or desire an
alternative method of returning the card. Signed cards will be delivered to the
IELRB for validation. The FSN will not
publicly disclose the identities of those who sign and return the cards.
Your signature on these cards only
indicates your interest in providing T/TT faculty an opportunity to vote on
attaining alternative representation. Signing
this card does not preclude you from voting to retain the FA or for no
representation by a collective bargaining agent in the subsequent IELRB ballot
provided signature of at least 30% of T/TT faculty sign and return the attached
card.
Sincerely,
Faculty for Sensible Negotiations
