Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Your vote to decertify is essential

Dear Colleagues,

The vote for decertification of AFMSU/MEA-MFT's representation of tenured
and tenure-track (TT) faculty is likely to be very close, so your vote to
decertify is very important and will make a difference. A simple majority of
those who vote will determine the outcome.

AFMSU has been publicly claiming majority membership since November, and
has recently stated that 52% of the TT faculty are union members. However,
the official list of the TT collective bargaining unit accepted by the Board
of Personnel Appeals, as of 2/28/2013, does not show majority membership,
with 198 union dues-paying members out of 399 in the TT unit.  In addition,
we have been in contact with many TT union members that have opposed
the TT union from the start and joined the union in silent opposition, or
are disappointed with AFMSU’s performance over the past 4 years.  If the
all TT faculty vote, there are enough non-members and members who oppose
AFMSU/MEA-MFT’s representation of TT faculty to decertify the TT component
of the union.

This decertification vote will NOT affect AFMSU/MEA-MFT’s role as the
representative of the non-tenure track (NTT) faculty at MSU.  AFMSU/MEA-MFT
will continue to represent the NTT faculty after this vote.

Ballots will be mailed to you today (3/27/13) from Helena by the Montana
Board of Personnel Appeals. The ballots will be counted in Helena on April
16.  Follow the ballot instructions carefully and return your ballots early
so they don’t miss the deadline for the count.

Please consider the issues described and discussed on this website.

And please vote!

The Petitioners

Bennett Link, Professor, Physics
Randy Babbitt, Professor, Physics
Gary Brester, Professor, Agricultural Economics and Economics
F. William Brown, Professor, College of Business