Green Bay

ONLINE CASE

The University of Dissension

This is a case about unions.

This case involves one of the divisions of the workforce of a state university near you. The personnel of that university are structured like many others around the country, with four distinct divisions of labor. Administrators include the president, a number of vice-presidents, and many other executive-level administrative assistants positioned throughout the various departments. Faculty make up the second tier, and include assistant, associate, and full professors. Professional associates are the "white-collar" support staff; most of these individuals have a college education and work as middle managers, day-to-day operations administrators, technical support staff, and so on. Operating staffers are the "blue-collar" workers; they include administrative assistants, clerical workers, physical plant and grounds maintenance people, and custodians.

Operating staffers represent the largest and lowest-paid division of the workforce. Most of those individuals have no education or formal training beyond high school. Their pay scale ranges from minimum wage to $12–$15 per hour. Their benefit package includes some provisions for health and life insurance and retirement. It is far less comprehensive than the other three divisions and is considered to be somewhat comparable to employees in similar positions in the surrounding area.

The operating staffers have always maintained a central committee made up of a cross-representation of the various departments around campus. The committee was originally established to serve as a liaison between labor and management for communication purposes. In reality, it has functioned almost exclusively as a fundraising and community service arm for that group. The operating staffers have always been the most generous division on campus when it comes to community outreach volunteers and for the annual fundraising drives of the traditional nonprofit community service organizations.

For the first time ever, the central committee finds itself talking about unions. Operating staffers have begun to show up for the meetings in growing numbers to voice their displeasure about changes in working conditions and to encourage the committee to go ahead and take a serious look at unionizing.

During the past few years, administrative assistants, groundskeepers, maintenance workers, and custodians have not been replaced as positions become vacant. Supervisors have simply asked existing workers to "pick up the slack" since "the school cannot afford to fill those vacant positions." In addition, operating staffers have been required to contribute more of their paychecks each year to cover an increasing