Yea, Union!

Now this is more like it! A real union meeting with real excitement swishing around the room. Will we strike? What is the evil state planning? How will we respond? So much to plan…

How many evaluations?

Today I was told , by a wigged out Miserly, that I was in violation of the CBA. He had steam coming out of his ears as he charged into my office so it took a few moments to determine what he was so flustered about. It seems that that he had just found out that I did not have 20 student evaluations returned for the Fall semester. Having never heard this magic number before, I maintained a quizzical demeanor and requested an explanation as to what it all meant. All I could get out of him was that this was BAD and that BAD things could and probably would happen as a result.

As an explanation Miserly began to frantically search online for the line in the Governance Manual which stated this requirement – it wasn’t there… Miserly then dashed to his office and returned with a print version of the CBA and frantically searched in there… No luck for a good 15 minutes of searching but really, showing me now is moot with regard to last semester.

Read the CBA!

As a new librarian, I am appalled by the lack of information sharing that is done in Library. There are clearly some things that need to be shared with new hires: some of this is the University’s responsibility and other information should be reinforced or presented at a more local level, within your department. If you have a proactive mentor, that is a great help as well. My experience here so far has been a whirlwind orientation at the University level, a very brief meeting with the Miserly chairperson, and no sign of the mentor (still!) Other informal interactions can also be enlightening but those don’t happen here except with other equally uninformed non-tenured faculty members.

Apparently there is a document called the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) and it is very important not to be in violation of this document and therefore it would be good if someone mentioned that it should be read…

Yawn, Union!

I have volunteered to be Library’s representative to the Faculty Union. I attended my first meeting and it was a bit boring but quick, so that is good.

Why for art thou, Union?

The faculty have a union and the staff has a union and there appears to another union in the mix as well. The question is why is there a union and do they really do anything for you other than impose another layer of administration to the mix. I don’t know the answer to this question yet.
I also found it odd that you can choose not to be in the union but you will still have to pay about 90% of the union dues.

Is that legal?