Michigan State University’s tenure-system faculty was recognized as a union this week.
Robert Maleczka, a chemistry professor at MSU, said the process began when faculty members started to organize with a grassroots campaign that grew in momentum after cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizers began collecting signed union authorization cards. It took arbitration between organizers and MSU administration to determine how the card-checking process would proceed, Maleczka said. But this Monday they reached an agreement, and after being counted, the faculty who showed support for the union were in the majority and the Union of Tenure System Faculty was recognized by the university.
“If you would have talked to me a few months ago, I would have been concerned that they are needlessly dragging this process along, but we got where we needed to go,” Malecza said.
University spokesperson Amber McCann said in a statement that MSU "is committed to the collective bargaining process and our ongoing efforts to recruit and retain world-class faculty and staff."
"We will continue to work with our employees to reach the missions and goals of the university," McCann said.
Professors are able to join the union as long as they are part of the MSU tenure system and not part of the university administration. "What we want is as many faculty to participate in establishing the very first contract as possible,” Maleczka said. “Professors from liberal arts may have issues that are not as common in STEM and vice versa, and so we need that broad, collective voice as we proceed.”
