US academic librarians: their involvement in union activities

Abstract

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A Seat at the Table

“…Although the focus of our inquiry is on Canadian universities, we broadened our literature review to include research conducted across North America due to the scarcity of research in this area. This review reveals that most research on academic librarians and faculty associations focuses on the history of unionization for librarians (Dekker 2014;Jacobs 2013;Hovekamp 2005), the extent of academic librarians' inclusion in faculty associations and bargaining units (Carmack and Olsgaard 1982;Riley and Moist 2018), the benefits of unionization (Applegate 2009;Carmack and Olsgaard 1982;Garcha and Phillips 2001;Hovekamp 1995Hovekamp , 2005Kandiuk 2014;Lee, Rogers and Grimes 2006;Mills and McCullough 2018;Spang and Kane 1997), librarian issues in collective agreements (Aby 2009;Harrington and Gerolami 2014), and the degree of parity between librarian and professor salaries and working conditions (Harrington and Gerolami 2014;Kandiuk 2014;Kandiuk and…”

“…There has been very little attention paid to librarians' active participation in the functioning of their faculty associations. The only research we can find into the matter (beyond anecdotal accounts of librarian participation at individual institutions) are Garcha and Phillips's survey, conducted in 1999, and Kandiuk's survey, conducted in 2013. Garcha and Phillips's (2001 literature review notes that "little, if anything, has been published about the extent to which librarians are actively involved in their unions" (122), and this remains true some 20 years later.…”

“…Garcha and Phillips's (2001 literature review notes that "little, if anything, has been published about the extent to which librarians are actively involved in their unions" (122), and this remains true some 20 years later. Garcha and Phillips (2001) surveyed librarians who attended the American Association of University Professors Summer Institute at Northern Michigan University in 1999 by distributing paper copies to be completed and returned by fax. They received 108 completed surveys (for a response rate of 54 percent) and found that 32 respondents had served on a local executive board, with 14 serving in the capacity of president, vice-president, secretary, or treasurer; ten had served on a bargaining team.…”

“…They received 108 completed surveys (for a response rate of 54 percent) and found that 32 respondents had served on a local executive board, with 14 serving in the capacity of president, vice-president, secretary, or treasurer; ten had served on a bargaining team. Garcha and Phillips (2001) also asked about participation on various other union committees (e.g., grievance, nominations); the fact that there were 146 responses to this question indicates that some of the 108 respondents served on more than one committee. Curiously, despite the fact that one of the three main stated goals of their survey was to investigate librarians' active participation on union committees,, Garcha and Phillips did not devote any of the discussion section of their 2001 paper to this topic; they merely presented the results of their findings in tabular form.…”