FORUM: "The Future of Faculty Unions"

Each week, the Chronicle of Higher Education sends me links to its feature stories. This week's email included many individuals active in labor relations "gathering" online to discuss "The Future of Faculty of Unions."

If this passes for a wide-open discussion in academia, God help us. Notice that there are many individuals offering their views but they are all pro-union. If you are pro-union, that is fine and dandy, but you aren't going to learn much. Even if the forum was explicitly, rather than tacitly, pro-union they could have discussed strategies, methods of pressuring administrations that face pressures from other sides, etc.

On my campus, for example, there is talk of a strike which is a classic union "tool." I haven't seen reference to strikes in any higher ed journals that circulate widely. Do you lose health benefits? (No, but you must pay the full premium and that might alert you to how lucky we are to have our health plans so heavily subsidized). Are you eligible for unemployment compensation? Does the union provide an financial assistance? Short of a strike, what else can unions do (other than file complaints)? The list goes on and on. This discuss has begun on a local blog devoted to faculty issues at my university but you have to burrow through the long threads of comments.


Until putatively pro-union writers put their chips on the table, it sure looks like they have nothing to shoot. No wonder administrations don't take these associations seriously.

Ninite: One-Click Batch Install and Update Your Programs!

Over at my eHistory blog I posted the first of several tips for cutting down the time you spend on installing (and updating) programs. The profiled program is Ninite. Check it out!

Court Victory for Health Insurance Carriers

NOTE: Hat tip to SUAA, one of the finest sources of real-time information on issues pertaining to state employee benefits. And membership is only $20 per year!

The State of Illinois lost its case in a unanimous ruling favoring Health Alliance and other carriers who protested the policy change by Quinn's administration. Read the State Journal-Register story.

"Administrative Bloat": Irascible Professor Blog

"Administrative bloat" is not on my Top Ten List of evil things in academia. Nevertheless, since this is a perennial issue at my campus, I pass along the following post from a blog in California.

http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-07-14-11.htm

HT: George Leef at NAS Blog

AFSCME: Quinn "even lower" than Governor Walker

UPDATE: To their credit SIUC Unions United seem to have learned from 2011 and the run-ins with the Illinois Democratic establishment. See this latest story from their blog.

The Southern Illinoisan reports on Quinn's backpedaling on a deal negotiated with AFSCME, the union representing many local and state workers.

Here is another story on the union's response. Some choice excerpts:

“Today Pat Quinn has shown that his signature on such negotiated agreements is not worth the paper it’s printed on."

“Republican governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, Chris Christie of New Jersey and others have recently sought changes in law to eliminate the right of collective bargaining for public employees. By choosing to simply ignore a legally binding agreement, Pat Quinn has sunk even lower. Not only is Quinn’s assault on public employee collective bargaining unprecedented in the four decades of state employee bargaining in Illinois, given his repeated criticism of Walker and others, it is utterly hypocritical."

This past year union negotiations bogged down at SIUC. There are many factors at play but anyone watching Springfield knew that the vast right-wing conspiracy theories, the obsessive demonization of Cheng, and the Support Wisconsin rhetoric was distracting from a simple reality: politicians of either party "go where the money is" (the old bank robber quote). Illinois politicians (both parties) made a helluva mess and went first after pensions (look for that again; Quinn stayed silent during the whole effort to slash union pension benefits). A massive "temporary" tax increase didn't close the huge gap so our future will be determined in part by what happens with SIUC negotiations but the greater threat to our future benefits is from Springfield.

And, no, at last word the Koch brothers were not behind Quinn, Emanuel and Madigan's recent measures. Liberal Chicago billionaires supported these changes. Exhibit A: Penny Pritzker, national finance chair for Obama in the '08 election, doing her part for/with Emanuel in undermining the ability of unions to strike in Cook County. For more on the reliably Democratic billionaires, read this piece.

I'm "shocked! shocked!" to find that leading Illinois Democrats, from the governor on down, will back stab unions. Say it ain't so! Where is Obama to chide our governor? Welcome to Illinois politics."See no evil, hear no evil" as long as the Democrats are in power.

State High Courts: Pension COLAs Can Be Cut Despite Constitution

Hot off Capitolfax.com:

Colorado and Minnesota rule that pensions may be cut. Colorado's constitution had a pension clause, though not as strong as Illinois clause. Nevertheless, this is precisely what I warned about: the deepest cuts come by slashing away at the cost-of-living and capping at a "high" $106,000 amount (not so high in future dollars if you take inflation into account. Four percent inflation would cut the present value of that cap to less than $30,000 in a 36 year career! No matter how much you pay into the pension).

So far, the media has done no coverage on how the Illinois Supreme Court might rule on these issues. After all, the Constitutional language about "interstate commerce" was crystal clear until the New Deal: "interstate" meant "interstate"! But then it meant "anything that might possibly enter the stream of interstate commerce or indirectly influence it by not entering the stream of commerce." In other words, constitutional protections (of all kinds) ain't what they used to be.

If you plan on retiring with a State of Illinois pension, gird your loins for many more battles and join the SUAA. They not only lobby but keep you up to date in a way that no other group does.

Rahm Emanuel Knows How to Handle Unions!

Rahm Emanuel was never a fan of labor unions (or anyone who gets in his way). Obama's former chief of staff, turned Mayor of Chicago, got a state act to raise strike votes to 75% aye required of unions in his jurisdiction. Imagine if an elected Republican executive did such a thing in neighboring Wisconsin. (Wait, we don't have to imagine).

The unions' response, since they are in a joint venture with the Democratic Party: "Isn't this wonderful that we can come to an agreement without getting nasty like unions have to do with Evil Meanie Republican Governor Scott in Wisconsin?"  From Chicago Tribune:

"In a recurring early theme of his tenure, Mayor Rahm Emanuel put the squeeze on organized labor Wednesday, telling City Hall unions he’ll lay off 625 workers unless they quickly get on board with money-saving changes to their jobs. . . .

The unions, caught off-guard by the mayor’s public throw-down, said the blame belongs on the politicians.

“There have been absolutely no negotiations between the city and the unions representing the city’s workforce,” said a joint statement by Jorge Ramirez, of the Chicago Federation of Labor. . . "

Rejecting furloughs as "hurting morale" (Daley's previous measure), Emanuel prefers layoffs:

“It is not necessary to do the layoffs if you agree to these reforms. If you don’t, that will be the choice left to me on behalf of the taxpayers,” Emanuel said. “So you can employ people and balance the budget. They have to be a partner to do it. I cannot do it without them. But if they don’t agree to it, 625 people and their families will lose that job.”

By the Numbers: What's Your Major Worth?

At the risk of incurring the wrath of humanities types who are loath to put a dollar sign on the "pricelessness" of what they/we offer, here is a great report on which majors pay how much:

http://cew.georgetown.edu/whatsitworth/

Mostly common sense: engineering majors make more than any other group. Wide variance within the Humanities, with History at the top (yeah!) with $57,000 and Theology/Religious Vocations at the bottom. The latter, of course, "store up their treasure in heaven." If you exclude the heaven-rich category, Intercultural or International Studies is the lowest paid degree.

Just as my college kicks off a Global Studies focus. I knew it would be a hard sell, up there with "I spent four years learning how to 'sustain' the Earth!"

Health Alliance Update: House Votes 98-15 to Restore the HMO, Kabosh Quinn's Change to Health Care

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/politics-and-government/2011-05-30/bill-keeping-insurance-two-years-goes-governor.html

Earlier, the State Senate also voted by a veto-proof margin to keep Health Alliance alive. The only people against are those from Chicago because they wanted more choice at the expense of any one not in Chicago area.

Quinn expected to veto and there is no time to override. Watch wobbly Quinn, who ducks hard issues, become a stubborn "don't-question-my-judgment" governor on this one.

As I said in an earlier post, Illinois IS Chicago even when Chicago musters less than 15% vote!

Civic Committee and Pension Reform: Membership includes . . .

Critics have said that "big money corporate interests" are guiding the Civic Committee of Chicago to push for pension reform. Perhaps, but it's membership is diverse and includes several university presidents, including Michael Hogan. The richest members are the Crowns and Pritzkers--multi-billionaire families from Chicago and BIG, BIG backers of Obama. In fact, as Jewish donors sour on Obama, Penny Pritzker (who happens to be Jewish) is trying to reassure Jewish donors about the president's stance on Israel. (Penny Pritzker was a chief campaign fundraiser for Obama in 2008).

So, if "corporate interests" are behind pension reform in Illinois, it's not the Koch brothers but some very liberal Democratic billionaires. ; - )

To wit: Illinois is not Wisconsin. Illinois is Illinois. Or, rather, Illinois is Chicago. Ha!

Here is a membership list:

http://www.civiccommittee.org/members/index.html

Postscript to earlier story on death of SB 512: On June 10th they will announce the new Money Purchase Formula, which many expect to be lower. They can legislate pensions away and they can nibble them away with bureaucratic tweaks here and there. Expect a piecemeal, split SB 512 that may not include all the retirement systems (it already exempted cops, fire fighters and prison personnel). Also expect changes to pension formulae and whatever else can be done by faceless bureaucrats.