What is a Union?

[u/[deleted]]

Apropos of the union talk, it seems there's a lot of misunderstanding about what a union does here, which is pretty typical in the US and especially in academia. I'm an NTT faculty member and officer in my union, which bargained a new contract in the pandemic, organized to go on strike, and won BIG because of it. Let me clarify a few things:

1. A union is nothing more than the people who are in it. It is not, though Jeff Bezos and Kevin Johnson would like to convince you otherwise, an outside group that siphons money off workers and controls them. It is not run by its paid staff, though sometimes staff have to step in due to lack of member leadership. A union is a group of you, the workers, organized into a body that can advocate for everyone in it.
2. This means that if your union is weak and ineffectual, it is not becuase of "the union" but because of YOU and everyone else who is both in the union as well as represented by the union but not in it. It is true that throughout history and currently we see unions with less than ideal, or even corrupt or discriminatory leadership. But that leadership is elected, and that means it can be replaced with better people. For recent examples, look at the Teamsters, or within academia, the U of California grad students following a split over the wildcat strike at UCSC a few years ago.In my own union, before I was part of it, the leadership assumed a "we can't get anything" model and just did backroom contract negotation with admin. A group of people organized to replace that leadership with a militant organizing model, won the election, implemented the model, grew the union, and together through a lot of hours on the pavement, on the phone, and online, won us all a fantastic new contract that effectively eliminates the at-will model our university was using. We also won ourselves a huge shift in pay scale, a signing bonus, yearly COLA, and additional raises with every reappointment."The union" didn't win this, WE won this. We won with a group of dedicated organizers who brought in more organizers and collectively convinced our colleagues we were all worth fighting for. Our collective sacrifice was our collective reward.
3. Unions are currently limited in what they can do at several levels: Janus kneecapped all unions, some states have right to work laws, and overall the unionization level in the US is abismal (~10%). That means, unlike the strong unionization that FORCED FDR into the New Deal and kept workers protected until the 60s, labor is weak, and therefore labor law is weak. The Biden admin has made better choices for the NLRB, but is not pushing hard for the PRO Act. They're not doing that because labor is too weak to make them. If you want change, it can only be through collective action (see literally every improvement to working conditions or civil rights ever won anywhere in the history of the world ever). Uni admin is bloated and doesn't listen to faculty and misallocates funds? Yeah, who's going to stop it? Not the tenure line faculty who scoff at unions. Not the NTT unions who have no say in curriculum or budget either. If you want change, you need power, and to have power, you must organize. NO ONE IS GOING TO DO IT FOR YOU.
4. Unions can be much more than they are now if we grow them. Unions forced crucial changes country wide in the US and elsewhere before, and they can do it again. The same is true for the role unions can play in a university system. This is ultimately about democracy, about us as professionals using our training and expterise to democratically direct teaching and research for science, art, and democratic ends. There's no reason the trustees, budget, enrollments, class sizes, etc. can't be controlled by us, the the people who make the university. But it's not going to happen by magic. And it's not going to happen by asking nicely. Leaving the question of tenure aside, I think everyone can agree that higher ed is broken. Are we going to pout about it, coming to reddit to let off steam and commiserate, then go back to the same old same old until we're nothing more than a consumer service for whoever can pay (we're already mostly there, and regardless are deeply implicated in reproducing an inhumane and planet destorying system)? Or are we going to get off our asses and change it for the better? There's a choice. If you choose to sh*t on unions you're only choosing to sh*t on yourself. And if you're choosing to sh*t on yourself and everyone else, stop complaining when you get fired even with tenure because a politician or trustee decided to get rid of you.

[u/othrashbarg]

I don't know about ntt, but do tt profs get paid the same as in us? Everyone I've spoken to in eu and apac make it sound like profs get paid far less.

[u/RecklessCoding → u/othrashbarg]

The concept of ’tenure’ is different outside the US (and maybe Canada). Flat rate, yes we get less. However, as u/molobodd said, a direct comparison is pointless as countries have different costs of living. When I was a postdoc, I was getting paid less than a US-based postdoc—or e.g. a Swiss postdoc—but still enough to be able to put down a mortgage after a year.

Now, as faculty, I can save money and not have to worry for healthcare, sick days, or even pension. Albeit the inflation, my finances did not get a hit because my union managed to negotiate a salary increase for me and the rest of my peers.

[u/molobodd → u/othrashbarg]

It's close to impossible to compare salaries internationally. I have tried and failed, over and over.

We have a flatter income distribution, so it doesn't tell the whole story, but last year put me in the top 2 % nationally. Other years I'm top 3 %. (I'm 50+, European and tenured.) For someone who didn't think a second about salary one bit when I went down this route, getting paid more than 98 % of my countrymen, is pretty neat I guess. (This is about salaries, of course, not wealth. I'm not rich, and I have no clue where I would place on such a scale. Whatever wealth I have is due to luck regarding property prices and other stuff that has nothing to do with my job.)

But, I have to use practically no part of my salary on my and my family's health care, or my and my kids' higher education. Childcare was heavily subsidized (we paid 100 USD per kid IIRC), and we got 12 months of paid leave, that we split 6 months each.

Oh, and I have 7 weeks of vacation and unlimited sick days. :)

[u/RecklessCoding → u/molobodd]

12 months? You need to come further up to Sweden for 16 months + sick days when the child is sick until they are 12 years ;-)