Tech faculty still at an impasse

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

March 14, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

A blaze-orange button that reads "Unite for a contract," laying on local union leader Karen Sollom's office table, sums up her position quite well.

After two years of negotiating, the United Technical College Educators union and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system are still grappling over issues of salaries and workloads. The issues are leftovers from technical college faculty contracts previously negotiated with local school districts before technical colleges merged with state universities and community colleges.

Sollom, a Northwest Technical College-Bemidji instructor, and the more than 2,200 other technical college faculty across the state believe they have hit an impasse in negotiations with the MnSCU board, she said, and the board isn't doing anything to settle negotiations with the UTCE union members.

MnSCU counters it is ready to settle negotiations, but the union's penchant of one specific issue -- workloads -- is delaying a settlement.

Sollom, a Bemidji campus representative for UTCE and a practical nursing instructor, said the problems began almost two years ago when Minnesota's three higher education systems were merged into one, MnSCU.

Since "The Merger," as it was called at the time, faculty from state universities and community colleges settled contracts with the MnSCU board. However, Sollom said the MnSCU board has a difficult time understanding what UTCE members are asking for because they do not understand the "lab intensive" or "hands-on" approach used by technical colleges to teach. She said the mission of the technical schools is much different than that of the other two institutions.

Of the two issues being discussed, both sides agree the workload issue is holding up an agreement. However, both sides disagree as to when it is necessary the issue be resolved.

Prior to the merging of all three higher ed systems, technical colleges contracted with local school districts and were considered part of that school district. Sollom said that means a different contract was negotiated for each of the 34 technical colleges in Minnesota, resulting in 34 varying standards of what a full-time instructor's workload should be.

Even though all campuses are now in one system, she said, there are some campuses at which faculty are considered full-time employees if they work 30 hours a week and other campuses where faculty need to work 40 hours a week to be considered full-time.

For instance, within the five-campus Northwest Technical College, of which Bemidji's campus is a part, there are discrepancies between the number of hours worked by faculty teaching the same subjects.

Jack Rhodes, MnSCU's director of communication, said the board recognizes the problems inherent in a system previously comprised of 34 separate entities, but the board would like to settle a contract first -- then compromise on the issue of workloads later.

UTCE members believe this is an unacceptable compromise, Sollom said, because the urgency to resolve the issue would no longer be apparent.

"What they want to do is take the status quo and move forward from there. But, if we're in a statewide system, we should have statewide standards," Sollom said. "There are some long-range implications because when it comes time to work out the semester-quarter conversion we teachers wonder how we will make out."

At this point, she said UTCE has hit a "stone wall" with the state board and something has to be done to avert a strike because, even though the Bemidji campus union members are moderate by nature, there are more "militant" members in the union calling for an immediate strike.

"I'm a natural Bemidji-ite. I'm a moderate person, and I like to consider things. But two years is a long time to consider things," Sollom said. "I'm even about ready to move on (to alternative approaches) if things aren't solved by (discussion)."

Northwest Technical College President Ray Cross said he understands both positions because there are gross inequalities in workloads statewide, but he also knows it would take about $30 million to adjust those inequalities.

"I don't want to give the impression that (NTC) faculty aren't worth what they are paid. They work more than what is paid them," Cross said. "However, I do believe the answer is in a long-term migration toward equality -- maybe a 10-year or 15-year process. But whether the bargaining teams would agree to that, I don't know."