Staff at the University of Vermont soon will have another chance to unionize. The Vermont State Employees’ Association announced Thursday it had filed a petition with the Vermont Labor Relations Board to represent nearly 800 non-teaching personnel. If the petition passes review, the board will set the schedule for an official election.
A kickoff event will be held at noon Friday on the front steps of the Royal Tyler Theater on campus. Staff, members of UVM unions, and community allies will “discuss the current climate at the University and their reasoning behind seeking unionization,” according to a press release from VSEA.
The filing marks a new chapter in a years-long effort by a group called United Staff to organize an independent union.
Kathy Carolin, a 20-year UVM employee, said the group is confident in its decision to band together with VSEA.
“After a failed drive in 2012 by the VT-NEA, fellow members of United Staff knew that in order to responsibly move forward, it was important to find a way to balance the desire for independence with the desire for additional support from an external organization,” Carolin said.
Janis Henderson, Chair of VSEA’s Vermont State Colleges Unit, said the occasion is momentous. “We are excited at the prospect of UVM staff joining VSEA so they will have the same opportunity as we do and to be recognized as equals with the UVM Administration and collectively bargain over all major decisions that impact their professions,” she said.
VSEA currently represents more than 5,400 members working across Vermont in the state’s Executive and Judicial branches and also in the Housing Authority, Defender General and Vermont State Colleges.
Marilyn Eldred, who works in the UVM Department of Physics, said she wants to join VSEA because it will give staff a bigger voice when working with UVM’s administration.
President Tom Sullivan and Provost David Rosowsky announced in June that UVM would begin rolling out a new budgeting process this year, for full implementation in summer 2015.
“Recent talk of ‘cost sharing,’ a potential reduction in benefits, and ongoing budget crises are key factors that make me nervous about the stability of our compensation and benefits,” Eldred said. “As a union, we will sit down with the UVM Administration and work together to negotiate a fair contract to determine our salaries, benefits, and working conditions.”
Faculty at the university have been working without a contract since their last one expired June 30. The administration and the faculty union United Academics (affiliated with American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors) declared an impasse in their negotiations in August.
