\n<\/p>\n
A growing number of faculty unions are including provisions about artificial intelligence in contract clauses and memoranda.<\/p>\n
This month, Inside Higher Ed <\/em>debuts Labor Watch, a monthly recap of recent higher education labor news, from strike announcements to union updates to news from the National Labor Relations Board. Check back during the first week of each month for the latest.<\/p>\n On Feb.\u00a019, St. John\u2019s University, a Roman Catholic institution in Queens, N.Y., withdrew its recognition of two faculty unions: its American Association of University Professors chapter and the Faculty Association. Both unions had been recognized by the institution and New York State since 1970. <\/p>\n Photo illustration by Justin Morrison\/Inside Higher Ed<\/p>\n President Brian Shanley announced the revocation to faculty via email on their 235th day of working without a contract. \u201cIn recent years, it has become clear that the university does not have the flexibility required to fulfill its Catholic-centered mission while its core academic decisions are entangled in a collective bargaining relationship,\u201d Shanley wrote in the email. St. John\u2019s is the second institution to use a religious exemption to shutter its union this academic year; in the fall, the Loyola Marymount University Board of Trustees announced it would no longer recognize its non-tenure-track faculty union and cease bargaining. <\/p>\n In their most recent contract proposals, St. John\u2019s union leaders requested a 3.85\u00a0percent pay increase for full-time faculty and a 25 to 30\u00a0percent pay increase for part-time instructors, which they said would bring the university in line with peer institutions, The <\/em>EduLedger<\/em> reported. Faculty are rallying against the revocation and collecting signatures on a petition urging Shanley to return to the bargaining table. <\/p>\n A growing number of faculty unions are including provisions about artificial intelligence in contract clauses and memoranda\u2014a trend that is likely to accelerate this year as AI poses an increasing threat to intellectual property protections and academic and research integrity. At least five four-year institutions and one community college have reached agreements related to AI, Bill Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, reported in his February newsletter.<\/p>\n Oregon State University established a joint labor\u2013management committee to discuss how generative AI impacts faculty working conditions and its existing labor contract. In its first contract, the Brown University Postdoc Labor Organization included an article that states the university will notify and discuss with the union \u201cany artificial intelligence\u2013related policies impacting working conditions.\u201d At the University of Michigan, the bargaining unit for librarians, archivists and curators entered into a memorandum of understanding with management about AI, which states that employees may use AI to perform work responsibilities \u201cbased on their independent professional judgement\u201d and prohibits the university from using AI to reproduce the voice or likeness of an employee without their written consent.<\/p>\n University of Colorado system regent Elliott Hood presented a policy to the board last month that would expand collective bargaining rights for faculty, staff and student workers, according to Boulder Reporting Lab<\/em>. Currently, only staff designated as state employees are granted collective bargaining rights through the statewide union Colorado WINS. Hood has support from fellow regent Ilana Spiegel but will need support from at least two other regents for the policy to pass. The board is expected to vote in June. <\/p>\n Members of California State University\u2019s Teamsters Local 2010, a union that represents 1,100 skilled trade workers across the university\u2019s 22 campuses, struck for four days between Feb.\u00a017 and Feb.\u00a020. In a March 2 news release, union leaders framed the strike as a success. On the first day of the strike, CSU chancellor Mildred Garc\u00eda committed to providing \u201cmuch deserved compensation increases\u201d to faculty and staff, should Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s budget proposal\u2014which contains a 5\u00a0percent base funding increase for the system\u2014pass the State Legislature, union leaders reported. <\/p>\n New York University\u2019s full-time, non-tenure-track faculty union will strike on March 23 if the university \u201cdoes not bargain in good faith and settle a fair first contract,\u201d union leaders announced last month. They claim the university has \u201crepeatedly broken the law\u201d by refusing to negotiate over housing and retiree medical benefits and by \u201cunilaterally changing the terms and conditions of employment\u201d while negotiations are ongoing. <\/p>\n The graduate student union at the University of Pennsylvania, which represents more than 3,400 graduate workers, ratified its first contract on Feb.\u00a027. The contract includes a $49,000 minimum annual stipend in year one and a $50,470 minimum stipend in year two; expanded health care, dental and vision coverage; paid parental leave; and guaranteed vacation time. It took effect immediately and will run through June\u00a01, 2028.<\/p>\n Harvard University\u2019s custodians\u2019 union reached tentative agreements with the university on Tuesday, three and a half months after the previous contracts expired. The new contract includes a $4-an-hour wage increase over the life of the four-year contract, as well as \u201cimproved language defending the job security of immigrant union members\u201d and a $500 bonus for every custodian. <\/p>\n Cornell Ph.D. student Russell Burgett is asking National Labor Relations Board general counsel Crystal Carey to issue a complaint to \u201cfree graduate students across the country from being forced to fund and associate with union bosses,\u201d the National Right to Work announced last month. Burgett aims to have the NLRB reconsider the 2016 Columbia decision, in which the bureau ruled that graduate students could be classified as employees and are therefore covered by the National Labor Relations Act. Burgett is not a member of the Cornell Graduate Student Union and requested to opt out of paying the portion of union dues that funds political actions by the union. Union leaders rejected this request, he says. <\/p>\n \u201cA graduate student\u2019s primary relationship with his or her school is as a customer of that school\u2019s educational instruction and services, not as a statutory employee,\u201d Burgett wrote in his appeal. \u201cUniversities forcing graduate students to pay union dues to act as teaching and research assistants interferes with their ability to complete their course of studies and earn their degrees. Here, the [union contract] effectively makes financially supporting [the union] a condition of receiving a Cornell graduate degree.\u201d<\/p>\n Hundreds of members of the University of Massachusetts Professional Staff Union picketed in early February to protest UMass Amherst chancellor Javier Reyes\u2019s demand that employees give up part of their cost-of-living adjustment in favor of merit-based pay increases, Amherst Indy<\/em> reported. Employees have been negotiating a new contract with UMass since July 2024, and Gov. Maura Healey has approved a 12.5\u00a0percent adjustment over the three-year period the new contract would cover\u2014from July 2024 to January 2027. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A growing number of faculty unions are including provisions about artificial intelligence in contract clauses and memoranda. This month, Inside Higher Ed debuts Labor Watch, a monthly recap of recent higher education labor news, from strike announcements to union updates to news from the National Labor Relations Board. Check back during the first week of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[21722,16744,6109,2052,1349,10719],"class_list":{"0":"post-45961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-axes","9":"tag-csu","10":"tag-johns","11":"tag-pays","12":"tag-strike","13":"tag-unions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}St. John\u2019s Shuns Unions<\/h4>\n
All Eyes on AI<\/h4>\n
Better Bargaining in Colorado?<\/h4>\n
Strike Alert<\/h4>\n
Contract Wins<\/h4>\n
Grad Student Wants Out<\/h4>\n
Staff Protest En Masse UMASS<\/h4>\n