The highlight of the 2013 UAUO faculty union bargaining was when the administration made us a “take it or leave it” offer that included a one-time $350 lump-sum payment, which Sharon Rudnick and Tim Gleason thought would be irresistible to our underpaid adjuncts and split the union.
I checked craigslist and blogged that you could buy a goat for $350 (a nice one) and this became the running joke for bargaining – Rudnick had to threaten to close the sessions if a certain professor didn’t stop playing goat noises on his cell phone. You know who you are. Shameful.
David Cecil and Mike Mauer pretended they didn’t understand take it or leave it, and went on bargaining for another month, getting us another percent or so. Then they took the goat too. The union celebrated with a goat roast:
But it turns out not all university unions love their goats. Inside Higher Ed reports:
Goats. They’re cute, they’re used in yoga classes, they’re … taking union jobs?
That last charge is being leveled by a labor union against Western Michigan University. The institution recently brought in goats to clear overgrown brush and weeds from a wooded 16-acre lot, according to local media. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1668, however, says that the university’s use of goats violates the union’s labor agreement with Western Michigan.
The union has a contract to cut the grass at Western Michigan. While the goats aren’t being used to trim the grass, their use wasn’t discussed with the union ahead of time, and the union says they’re taking jobs that could have gone to Local’1668. …
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