Unions

UNIONS COME TO THE JUNIOR COLLEGE

In the earliest years of the college when the number of faculty was small, contact with the dean was likely to be a personal matter. Any communication with the Board of Education was likely to be through the dean or a committee of the board. When the institution moved to the College and Cultural Center the number of faculty increased dramatically and there was a need to have the new voices heard as the new development engulfed the college. In response, the faculty, in 1954-55, formed several committees to study ways to give themselves a larger role in the development of the college. A Central Council was created that served as a governing structure until 1963 when the Faculty Senate was formed. The first president of the Faculty Senate was Roger Van Bolt. He was followed by Norv Holm, Guy Yeaster, Norv Holm (reelected) and Ed Chase. The Senate became a major voice for the faculty on many important issues regarding the college – one of the most important was their strong opposition to the University of Michigan expansion to a four-year campus. Bill Walworth would later mourn the loss of the Faculty Senate when the CPSC (College Professional Study Committee) emerged as the major faculty voice in the late 1960s. During the 1960s the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), headed at various times by Jack Gray, Jack Carlsen, Len Meizlish and Eli Labiner, was also an important voice for the faculty.

The formation of organizations with the power to negotiate for wages and working conditions would have to wait for the passage of Public Act 379 in 1965 which gave teachers the right to form unions and bargain for contracts. A key issue facing the college faculty was “Where would they fit in?” Would they be part of the K-12 system for bargaining or should they form their own separate unit? The Faculty Senate requested advice from the two major teacher unions in the area – the Michigan Federation of Teachers and the Flint Education Association. June Feiger, an organizer for the Michigan Federation of Teachers, argued that the college faculty would be best served by being part of a larger group. Ray McLaughlin of the Flint Education Association emphasized the fact that the college faculty had concerns different from K-12 teachers and should be a separate unit.

In spite of the fact that the junior college faculty voted to form a separate union, the state Labor Mediation Board placed them with the K-12 teachers. An election was ordered to decide which group would represent the faculty and the Flint Education Association was victorious. In February of 1966 negotiations began on a three-year contract. Though part of the K-12 systems, the college faculty were able to include a number of provisions, specific to the college teaching through the efforst of Lillian Jenkins, who was president of MAHE (a local district of the Michigan Association of Higher Education). Gradually, the MAHE district became the major voice for the college faculty to the First Education Association. Howard Hughes served as president of the MAHE following Lillian Jenkins.

By the fall of 1968 the faculty requested its own separate bargaining unit. While the Flint Board of Education took no stand on the issue, both the Flint Education Association and the Flint Federation of Teachers, with Leonard Meizlish’s leadership, supported the idea. On My 7, 1969 an election was held and the Flint Community College Education Association was chosen over the Flint Federation of Teachers by a 29 vote margin. According to Eli Labiner, who as active in the Federation and then joined the first EA bargaining team, the major difference between the EA and the Federation was the view they took toward unions. The EA felt that it was not a labor union in the traditional sense but, rather, a professional organization. The Federation felt it was organized primarily for the traditional goals of labor unions – wages and working conditions. Negotiations began two months later on July 7 as the Education Association team of Marie Bauer, Bill Bednar, Kathryn Caraway, Eli Labiner, Ed Schleg and Don Winer met with the Board of Education’s team of James Allen, Augie Brandt, Fred Robbins, Charles Roche, Olof Karlstrom and Reese Dean, the Board’s attorney. The first contract was completed after many months of arduous negotiations on January 8-9, 1970. Bill Bednar served as the first president of the EA in 1968-69. He was followed by Ed Schleg (1969-70), Fred Pagliarini (1970-71), Russ Morcom (19710-72), Guy Yeaster (1972-74), Jack Carlsen (1975-76), Norvin Holm (1977-78), Leatha Terwilliger (1979-94) and Jim Hanley (1994-97) and Steve Robinson (1998-).

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