MEMORANDUM TO ALL PART-TIME FACULTY, RE: UNION ELECTION (printer-friendly version) (printer-friendly version (PDF))

May 12, 2004

As you have probably heard by now, Local 500 of the Service Employees International Union (Service Employees or SEIU) has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to represent GW’s part-time faculty. I would like to provide you with some preliminary, but critical, information about the representation election so that you can begin to think about the potential implications of unionization for you and for the University.

Although the Service Employees does not have a majority of the part-time faculty’s support of its petition for an election, SEIU met the NLRB’s minimum jurisdictional requirement to hold an election by garnering support only from 30% of the part time faculty teaching in the Spring 2004 semester. The election, which will determine whether the Service Employees should be permitted to represent the University’s part-time faculty as its exclusive agent, will be by mail ballot and eligible voters will have from October 4 through October 19, 2004, to complete and return their mail ballots. The vote will affect all GW part-time faculty and regular part-time faculty, with few exceptions.

You will likely receive a number of communications from the Service Employees between now and the election. You may also see SEIU flyers and posters around campus that attempt to demonize the University as a means of convincing you to vote for the Service Employees union, which they have recast as an “adjunct union.” I have confidence that you will be able to parse through the rhetoric and focus your attention on the relevant facts, as the results of this election will significantly affect your conditions of employment at the University.

The University too will be communicating with you over the coming months to explain in more detail why, in its view, voting for the Service Employees union would not be in your best interests or in the interests of the students we serve. For now, however, I wish primarily to impress upon you the importance of these issues, and the need for you to voice your position and cast your vote during the election in October. This is because under federal labor law, a majority of those voting -- not a majority of those in the unit sought to be represented -- will determine whether the Service Employees will represent GW’s part-time faculty. Do not let a small minority of part-time faculty choose a representative to speak for you. Please vote in October!

In the interim, to learn more about the issues involved in union representation, I encourage you to speak to your deans and department chairs, and to visit the University’s website at www.unionization.gwu.edu (where you will also find more information about the events that led to the direction of an election by the NLRB). I too would appreciate hearing from you. Thank you, and have an enjoyable summer.

Donald R. Lehman
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs