CONTACT: David Zaffrann, 651-238-8944, david@mnacademics.

org

Background Information on University of Minnesota faculty filing for

a union election

Faculty at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities campus will file for a
union election with the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services on
Wednesday, January 20th.

The Bureau of Mediation Services will then determine the appropriate list
of eligible voters, verify that the necessary 30% level of support has been
demonstrated in order to trigger an election, and establish the logistical
details of the election. Based on previous experiences at the U of M, we
expect this to take at least three months.

In public documents, the University has categorized some Instructional

Faculty as Professional and Administrative employees rather than
Instructional. If the U of M administration disagrees with faculty about
who is eligible to vote, it may hinge on that bureaucratic separation.
Faculty interpret the legislatures creation of an Instructional unit to
mean that instructional faculty should bargain together.

This union will include approximately 2,500 tenure-line and contingent

faculty at the U of M Twin Cities campus. This will be one of the largest
single-campus faculty unions in the country.

U of M TC faculty began conversations about forming a union with SEIU

in the summer of 2014.

U of M TC faculty last voted on forming a union in 1997 and lost by just

26 votes.

Adjunct faculty at Hamline University voted overwhelmingly to form a

union with SEIU Local 284 in June of 2014 and reached a tentative
agreement for their first contract in December. The tentative agreement
includes an immediate 15% raise in base pay and total raises of 20-30%
over three years, the establishment of a professional development fund,
compensation for course cancellation, and more.

Nationally, SEIU has 38,000 members in faculty unions, including the

University of Chicago, Georgetown, Tufts, Northeastern University, and the
California State University system. Faculty at over 30 colleges and
universities have joined SEIU in the past five years.

SEIU Local 284 represents over 7,000 education professionals including

adjunct faculty at Hamline, early childhood educators, and staff in K-12
districts across the state.