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This study investigated the plight of working mothers of children under the age of 18 at the University of Nigeria within the context of work-family conflict, using data from a cross-sectional sample of 485 academic and non-academic staff selected through a multi-staged sampling technique. Data were obtained using questionnaires and seven IDI (in-depth interview) respondents. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequency tables, while the Chi-square was used to examine the study variables. The results indicated that there is a statistically significant relationship between couples living together and the stress experience of working mothers with under-age children. The findings further show that there is a statistically significant relationship between the staff category of working mothers and the experience of stress. This underscored the recommendation that the government needs to review the working conditions of women and support workplace policies that allow flexibility and support for working mothers. Social workers are also recommended to be involved in some government and organization policies that will help to reduce work overload for working mothers. Keywords: Work-life balance, Stress, Working mothers, Nigerian universities, Higher education., Introduction Nowadays, mothers are expanding their lives in different careers while maintaining their traditional obligations at home (Adhikari, 2012). As a result, balancing family and work responsibilities remains a crucial [...]

Introduction The cultural landscape of graduate employee life in the research university faces significant change. Ten years ago just a handful of recognized graduate employee unions existed. Today, more than [...]

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

This article examines the role of academic unionism in the perennial crisis bedeviling the university system in Nigeria. It is the contention here that contrary to officially sponsored opinion, the crisis can be linked to external factors, especially the government's handling of industrial disputes. The crisis in the system, which started in the early 1990s, can be seen as the direct off-shoot of the macroeconomic adjustment programs foisted on the country and the subsequent decrease in government funding of the education sector. Nevertheless, the repressive practices of past military regimes have contributed immensely to the crisis, as have the frequent strikes of the the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU). The articles suggests that the crisis can be tackled only with an amelioration of the fundamental problems confronting the system--ranging from underfunding and poor working conditions to excessive government meddling in university governance--and a rethinking of strategies by both the government and ASUU.

In order to test competing hypotheses about the effect of unions on labor productivity, we examine research performance in a sample of 889 Ph.D.-granting departments (175 unionized) in public universities. We find no support for the hypothesis that unions enhance productivity in academe. If we compare union and nonunion departments endowed with (sample) mean amounts of labor and capital, we find that unionization is associated with a 17 percent reduction in output of published articles and a 9 percent reduction in peers' survey evaluations of a department's level of scholarly achievement. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The relationship between faculty salaries and unionism at Ph.D.-level universities is investigated. Unlike previous attempts at analyzing this topic, the model endogenizes the union-nonunion choice using appropriate techniques for analyzing limited dependent variables. These techniques allow computation of average salaries for all schools under the assumption that they are unionized and also under the assumption that they are not unionized. Subtraction of the predicted nonunion salary from the union salary provides an estimate of salary differences, which is corrected for selectivity bias. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Details of the Great CSU (California State University) strike of 2007 by the faculty of CSU are discussed. It is aimed at highlighting the need to engage the community for justice as was done by the faculty for pay issues at the CSU.

Kean University is trying to persuade its staff to work fixed hours including Saturdays following cutbacks in the annual state funding. The university hopes to increase enrolments to offset a possible raise in tuition fees.

Managers at Coventry University ended their discussion with the University and College Union after an impasse over plans to introduce performance-related pay for lecturers. The university will now ask individual academics to opt for the new pay structure or retain their existing contracts.

The decision of Keele University relevant to an open letter that was circulated by an employee complaining of management accountability is presented.

The general secretary candidate in the University and College Union (UCU) election offers suggestions on various requirements of the academic community, which should be conveyed, to the universities as part of their duty of care to staff and to students. These include efforts to limit hours of work and paperwork, to secure equal pay for fixed-term researchers, postgraduate teachers and hourly paid lecturers, and to challenge privatization of academic functions.

More and more university staff are earning large wage packets, with a growing number earning six-figure salaries, according to a survey conducted by the Times Higher Education Supplement which examined university accounts relating to the financial year ending 31 July 2001. The number of staff earning over UKPd50,000/yr, the level at which it becomes compulsory for it to be declared in financial accounts, rose to over 9,000, vs 7,500 in the previous year, while the number of academics earning over UKPd150,000/yr rose to 12 from nine. Of the 164 institutions surveyed, only six had no members of staff on over UKPd50,000/yr.