Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against Northwestern University

The Northwestern University Non-Tenure Eligible (NTE) Faculty Union, part of SEIU Local 73, has filed unfair labor practice charges against Northwestern’s administration for refusing to bargain with their recently certified union. Northwestern faculty joined the University of Chicago and Loyola University of Chicago in forming a union for NTE faculty in the Chicago area. Unlike Northwestern, those two schools began negotiations with faculty shortly after their union certification from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Jackson Bartlett, Visiting Assistant Professor in Sociology at Northwestern University.

“It’s difficult to do your best as an instructor and scholar when you have to worry about things like paying for a doctor’s visit or whether or not you’ll get paid next quarter, as many of my colleagues do. I’ve been a part of this movement because Northwestern is one of the world’s richest institutions and I think that they can pay us enough to get by. We do the majority of the teaching on this campus and the University is breaking the law by refusing to negotiate. What’s more, they’re spending millions of tuition dollars on union-busting lawyers. We’ve no other choice but to file charges with the NLRB, and hope that the administration will live up to their own stated commitment to the personal growth of their faculty by sitting down to bargain a contract in good faith this fall,” said Jackson Bartlett.

After the certification of the union election results on May 26, 2017, the administration filed a request for review regarding 25 ballots deemed ineligible by the National Labor Relations Board. Requests for review are not uncommon after union elections and in no way change the employer’s obligation to bargain in good faith with their employees’ union. Full-time and part-time non-tenure eligible faculty stand together in their legally recognized union to improve working conditions at Northwestern and to make it a model of teaching and scholarship in higher education.

“I am disappointed by the administration’s refusal to recognize the NTE faculty union and to participate in the negotiations planned for this Fall. We ask that it reevaluate its decision and serve as a model of fairness and excellence for faculty, students and the entire Northwestern community,” said Alessandra Visconti, Lecturer in Italian.