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Two members of the Faculty Alliance of Miami at Miami University, Theresa Kulbaga and Rachel Makarowski, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss organizing victories for teachers and staff at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Kulbalga also spoke about the issues they overcame in founding FAM, while Makarowski provided details on the librarians’ fight to join the Union.
The Faculty Alliance of Miami began as an advocacy group of the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers. The advocacy group had made some progress in teacher and staff workplace improvements. However, during the pandemic, they found they needed more employment protections. This led to the formation of the teacher and staff organizing efforts in early 2022. After a long fight, FAM was formed with the recognition of a successful vote to unionize in 2023.
After making organizing efforts public in February 2022 and turning in union cards in the summer of 2022, FAM faced its first major obstacle. Management began to run an anti-union campaign to subvert the union by separating the multiple groups from each other. The campaign eventually led to a board hearing that determined only tenured teachers and teaching staff could be in the bargaining unit. In contrast, librarians and visiting teachers had to form a separate bargaining unit. In response, the organizers created the FAM LUV project to hold events to educate and grow union sentiment in the community, said Kulbaga.
Following the board’s decision, the librarians turned in signed union cards within a week. The group thought they would face a fight after the board’s decision. However, they received support from FAM and the rest of the Miami University community. Without that support, Makarowski believes it may have turned out differently. However, when the union vote came, the Librarians voted to approve the union 28-0, she said.
Listen to the entire episode to learn more.
America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.
America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, American Alliance for Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North America, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, Survey and Ballot Systems, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.
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