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Byline: Ruth Anne Baumgartner (1) Keywords: Collective Bargaining; Governance; Unions Abstract: The University of Bridgeport, like many other universities, inappropriately adopted a corporate model of faculty relations. But faculty members have multiple obligations: to their profession, discipline, students, public, self, and each other, in addition to their institution. These multiple obligations justified the actions taken by striking faculty. Faculty loyalty is not to an administration, and not ultimately even to their institution: it is to the truth, to the integrity of the profession, and to themselves. Author Affiliation: (1) 159 Fairview Avenue, Fairfield, CT, 06824, USA Article History: Registration Date: 07/10/2004

Byline: T. Mathai Thomas (1) Keywords: Collective Bargaining; Governance; Unions Abstract: This essay examines the role of the University of Bridgeport's Faculty Council in relation to the faculty union. The Faculty Council is a governing body composed of elected faculty representatives from different schools and departments within the university. Faculty Council leaders facilitated the certification of AAUP as the faculty's bargaining agent in 1973 and, under the author's leadership, the faculty petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to decertify the union in 1991. The author participated on the picket line during the 1975, 1978 and 1987 faculty strikes, but crossed the picket line during the 1990 strike. Author Affiliation: (1) School of Education, University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT, 06601, USA Article History: Registration Date: 07/10/2004

Byline: Alfred G. Gerteiny (1) Keywords: Collective Bargaining; Governance; Unions Abstract: The president of the AAUP faculty union at University of Bridgeport, from 1987 to 1991, offers a first-hand account of the circumstances leading to the fatal strike there. He refutes accusations that the union and its leadership destroyed the university and provides a dramatic, personal account of a faculty union under attack by union busters. The faculty, he argues, was resisting a concerted onslaught on traditional 'faculty rights.' It fought desperately to stifle a retrograde revolution in higher education seeking the substitution of absolute 'Management Rights' to traditional collegiality. He refers to faculty as the 'soul and mind of a university,' and to administration as a necessary evil whose duty is primarily to assist the faculty in the accomplishment of the university's mission. Author Affiliation: (1) 2625 Park Avenue, Apartment 6F, Bridgeport, CT, 06604, USA Article History: Registration Date: 07/10/2004

Byline: Glenn Bassett (1) Keywords: Collective Bargaining; Governance; Unions Abstract: The AAUP faculty union, established in 1973 on the University of Bridgeport campus, followed a policy of maximum militancy. Typically, this strategy was met by an ad hoc and often poorly informed administrative response, and ended in the bitter two-year faculty strike of 1990--1992. The absence of a coherent union relations strategy on the administration's part and a pattern of militant confrontation wherein the union almost always prevailed virtually guaranteed such an outcome. Author Affiliation: (1) 103 Shore Drive, Rogers Lake West, Lyme, CT, 06371, USA Article History: Registration Date: 07/10/2004

Byline: Denis Collins (1) Keywords: Collective Bargaining; Governance; Unions Abstract: This article offers a case study of labor relations in a higher education setting. The University of Bridgeport's faculty union was certified in May 1973 and decertified in August 1992. Contract negotiation disputes centered on shared governance, managing faculty reductions during a time of inflation and declining enrollments, and determining fair wages. The private university experienced four faculty strikes, culminating in a two-year faculty strike -- the longest in U.S. higher education history. The university was also the first institution of higher education in the United States to hire permanent replacement faculty during a strike. In 1990, leaders of the locked-out striking faculty unsuccessfully lobbied for a state government takeover of the nearly bankrupt university. The case study highlights a plethora of complex ethical issues faced by administrators, faculty, and unions during times of economic decline. Author Affiliation: (1) Business Department, Edgewood College, Madison, WI, 53711, USA Article History: Registration Date: 07/10/2004

Byline: Fred Wilson (1) Keywords: strikes; unions; collective bargaining; senates; collegiality; university governance Abstract: It has been argued that strikes are morally objectionable in the university context. They injure third parties -- the students -- and for this reason ought to be rejected. More generally, the strike weapon has led to a reduction of the power of Boards of Governors to adjust universities to changing times. And furthermore, the use of the strike weapon and the ensuing conflicts can injure the collegial form of governance that is essential to higher education. It is here argued that these arguments are hardly conclusive, and that there are virtues to having the strike as a means to resolve disputes. But keeping things on track requires both parties to adhere to the moral and social virtue of civility. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, 215 Huron Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A1 Article History: Registration Date: 06/10/2004