1/29/2012: Story here, not much new:
“We support a worker’s right to organize,” UO spokesman Phil Weiler said. “Our involvement is we just want to make sure we’re providing everybody with factual information so they can make informed decisions, but beyond that we support their right to organize if they think that’s the right thing to do.”
Sure you do. Here’s a link to a 2010 post on Johnson Hall secretly hiring a labor consulting firm to deal with the union:
The official line is that the $300 an hour consulting fee was not for advice on how to “oppose the union” – that would be illegal under Oregon law – instead it was for help “conveying relevant and factually accurate information” to the UO faculty. Which explains why the administration tried to keep the contract secret, to the point of including a nonstandard confidentiality clause preventing McKnight from even disclosing the existence of a contract:
Because you don’t want to give the faculty factually accurate information about who is giving the faculty factually accurate information. The contract was limited to $25,000 because OUS rules require a public posting on the OUS procurement website for contracts more than that. Clever. Too clever. Dumb.
Greg…always on the cutting edge.
It will be interesting if the admin revises the information on the HR website. It’s out of date and no longer factual, for example, OAs would not be part of the bargaining unit.
The HR site is also full of ominous warnings about what the AFT might do, after the union is certified, as if AFT could do anything without our approval, let alone our partner in affiliation, the AAUP. For example, there’s the fear-inducing prospect that AFT might herd us into a state-wide union with PSU or even (gasp!) compel us to join with SEIU. These things will happen — to quote UO Matters with regard to academic subsidies to athletics — on a cold day in hell.
This looks like Jim Bean’s modus operandi. Get a consultant. I wonder if they’ve hired another one? UO Matters should make a public records request to find out.