----------------------------------------------------------------
February 20, 1998
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Professors of Jazz Vote to Form Union
by Jason M. Reynolds
Jazz professors at the New School for Social Research voted last month, 42
to 23, to form a union. Some labor experts think the move could have
serious ramifications for other private institutions.
The professors, many of them part-timers, are part of the Jazz and
Contemporary Music Program in the New SchoolUs Mannes College of Music.
They formed their union under the American Federation of MusicUs New York
City chapter, Local 802. They decided to affiliate with Local 802 instead
of with a teachersU union because many of the jazz professors, who perform
in non-academic settings, already belong to the group.
The union reached out to the Mannes professors as part of a larger plan to
improve working conditions for all jazz performers in the city, said Tim
Dubnau, a union organizer involved with the RJustice for Jazz ArtistsS
drive. First on the union's agenda: to improve health care, pensions,
wage increases, and job security for the jazz professors.
"We didn't feel these and other issues were being addressed by the New
School administration," said Bill Kirchner, a jazz professor and member of
the unionUs organizing committee. The negotiating committee was planning
to meet last week to discuss how best to tackle those issues when it sits
down with the administration.
"I'm deeply disappointed that the faculty have chosen to elect union
representation," said Chuck Iwanusa, associate dean and director of the
division of jazz and contemporary music at Mannes. Collective bargaining
is unnecessary, he said, because the university appointed a committee last
fall to address the concerns of adjunct instructors. He declined to
discuss any details of the impending negotiations between the
administration and the union.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in National Labor Relations Board v. Yeshiva
University, has ruled that professors who have managerial duties could not
unionize, and the ruling has been held to include private-college faculty
members in general. The unionization of jazz professors at the New School
represents a "possible end run around Yeshiva." said Joel M. Douglas, a
professor of public administration at the City University of New YorkUs
Baruch College.
It is highly unusual for professors at a private college to be certified
as a collective-bargaining unit, much less as a separate unit from the
rest of the faculty, he said. The move could create schisms in the
faculty, he added, now that jazz professors can bargain for separate
benefits.
_______________________________________________
