If you don't support faculty collective bargaining...

[professorjackson]

...then I wouldn't advise following this link or reading the text that follows it...

http://www.bgnews.com/opinion/letters_t ... 963f4.html



I am writing this open letter to the student body of the University in my capacity as president of the BGSU Faculty Association, the faculty union for all full-time University faculty members.

We are coming to the end of a very long negotiating process to achieve the first ever contract for University faculty.

We are fighting for the University to prioritize the educational mission of the University.

We are seeing the consequences of not focusing on the central mission.

The University’s ranking in US News and World Report has slipped during the past four years out of the “Top 100 Public Universities in the U.S.”

One-third of our score in the rankings is “Faculty Resources,” which includes faculty salaries, benefits and student/teacher ratios. We are fighting to improve these.

President Mazey proposes reducing the number of faculty, while increasing enrollment at the University to 25,000.

How does the Mazey administration expect to attract students if our ranking falls below our central competitors?

The University’s ranking as an institution not only affects the decisions of our incoming students, but it also affects our alumni. As our ranking gets lower, their degrees are worth less on the job market.

If you’re interested in being part of the movement to change this, contact us at [email protected].

Together we can maintain the greatness of Bowling Green State University.

David Jackson

[professorjackson]

BGSU students have formed a group to support faculty during collective bargaining. Please spread the word!!!

http://www.facebook.com/groups/381945448551469/

[1987alum]

Well, I followed your advice and didn't click the link.

[BGorDeath]

Ohio State has class sizes a billion times bigger than BG. You are right, bigger classes will make worth less on the job market. God, I HATE UNIONS. They only create a lazy work force.

[pdt1081]

Ohio State has class sizes a billion times bigger than BG. You are right, bigger classes will make worth less on the job market. God, I HATE UNIONS. They only create a lazy work force.

How about you go to work for me for a week and tell me how lazy I am? By the way, pack a light lunch because we don't stop to eat.

[Class of 61]

Ohio State has class sizes a billion times bigger than BG. You are right, bigger classes will make worth less on the job market. God, I HATE UNIONS. They only create a lazy work force.

Out of curiousity, have you ever worked in a place where you actually WERE a part of a union? "They only create a lazy work force"? Could you show us some actual PROOF of this overstated opinion?

[h2oville rocket]

When I started my first job I was told that another guy also started and he would be making more than I for the same work because he had a family and I didn't. We had no union. Union changed all that- same job, same pay. As a manager I can see both sides of the equation and unions have their problems, but unions certainly don't ONLY create lazy work forces. Knowing I was working for less than another guy doing the same job might have caused me to be lazy but the union didn't.

[BGorDeath]

I bust my ass at my job only to have to depend on union workers for me to make money. Once these union workers reach their quota for the day, they quit working and sit on their ass and do nothing, costing me money. It doesn't matter if they have reached their quota at 9:30am, they won't do anything else because "our contract says I don't have to do more than that." So, my customers get pissed off, cancel orders or drop my service.

Additionally, union employees continue to screw up at their jobs, doing their work incorrectly and simply being inept at their job. However, their response when confronted, "you can't do anything to me because the union 's contract says you can't, so go away."

Also, when working for a city in the summer, I was constantly told by the full-time union members, "slow down young buck, it all pays the same, no matter how fast you do it."

Unions create a lazy workforce. I have seen it first hand in many different environments so don't tell me I have no clue.

Oh, and don't get me started on "supporting your union brothers and sisters" when I can offer a service at a slightly, and I mean slightly, more expensive price, but a union hall will not change service because "you're more expensive" instead of supporting a fellow union company. Unions are a crock.

[pdt1081]

I bust my ass at my job only to have to depend on union workers for me to make money. Once these union workers reach their quota for the day, they quit working and sit on their ass and do nothing, costing me money. It doesn't matter if they have reached their quota at 9:30am, they won't do anything else because "our contract says I don't have to do more than that." So, my customers get pissed off, cancel orders or drop my service.

Additionally, union employees continue to screw up at their jobs, doing their work incorrectly and simply being inept at their job. However, their response when confronted, "you can't do anything to me because the union 's contract says you can't, so go away."

Also, when working for a city in the summer, I was constantly told by the full-time union members, "slow down young buck, it all pays the same, no matter how fast you do it."

Unions create a lazy workforce. I have seen it first hand in many different environments so don't tell me I have no clue.

Oh, and don't get me started on "supporting your union brothers and sisters" when I can offer a service at a slightly, and I mean slightly, more expensive price, but a union hall will not change service because "you're more expensive" instead of supporting a fellow union company. Unions are a crock.

Where do you work? Believe me, what you describe is not representative of ALL unions. More likely a very slim minority of unions.

[h2oville rocket]

I supervise a union staff. the next lazy worker I get will be my first. I've seen some really BAD union workers (and some really BAD administrators) in my various jobs but darn few lazy ones.

[BGorDeath]

Uh, really don't want to say where I work because it will only my my job more difficult. And, I have dealt with many different unions. This is a "rare" case. Its commonplace.

[footballguy51]

I've worked in union shops and non-union shops. At the non-union places, I started wishing there was a union because management wouldn't be able to get away with what they were doing and favoritism wouldn't exist like it did. At the union places, I was really wishing the union was gone so my individual work would be more appreciated and recognized, I could be paid for what I was worth, and the slackers wouldn't be carried along. The other issue with the union place was that some people were actually not permitted to do anything outside of their job description, but at the non-union place the management took advantage of the situation and asked employees to do things way outside their pay grade under the threat of being fired. If companies would learn to appreciate and value their good employees and not treat them like dirt, and people would learn to actually work to their fullest potential and bust their ass for their pay, these problems wouldn't actually exist.

[pdt1081]

If companies would learn to appreciate and value their good employees and not treat them like dirt, and people would learn to actually work to their fullest potential and bust their ass for their pay, these problems wouldn't actually exist.

This is key. What BGorDeath describes is nothing more than a poor working relationship between workers and management/administrators. Chances are it would exist there no matter what the union status. Only difference is the union probably prevents a very high turnover rate.

My advice would be to try and find out why there is such resentment between the two levels.