Librarians want a union, Miami should let them organize

For the last couple of years, the Faculty Alliance of Miami (FAM) has been working to form a union of faculty and librarians, while Miami University’s administration has thrown up roadblocks at every opportunity. On March 9, Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board (SERB) ruled that tenured and tenure-track (TTT) faculty as well as Teaching, Clinical Professors and Lecturers (TCPLs) are the only groups that are appropriate to include together in a faculty bargaining unit, leaving out Visiting Assistant Professors, librarians, and hybrid faculty-staff whose work constitutes 50% or more of teaching, research and/or service. This decision is a major victory for TTT faculty and TCPLs. However, SERB’s decision to exclude the rest of the contested positions is a slap in the face for those of us who have been working incredibly hard on this important effort. In particular, the reasoning behind exclusion of librarians is difficult to fully absorb, as it hinges on a fundamental misunderstanding of what librarians do and how we fit into the larger faculty community at Miami.