Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Verifies Card Campaign

FEDERAL MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION SERVICE VERIFIES CARD CAMPAIGN

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service—an independent agency of the federal government—has verified that a majority of HSSU regular full time faculty signed cards indicating that they wanted Missouri NEA to be their exclusive bargaining agent for the purpose of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement.

As a follow-up, HSSU-NEA, the MNEA local chapter, extended an invitation to the Board of Regents to meet on May 15^th in the HSSU Library Seminar Room at 9 AM to prepare for negotiations.   In response, President Walker has sent a letter to all faculty indicating that the administration had been in consultation with the regents and that they have “no intention” of meeting with representatives of HSSU-NEA.

The position of the chapter is that the core of the university is the faculty and the students and that neither the president nor the Board of Regents can effectively represent these core groups if they refuse to meet with them and address their concerns.

The HSSU chapter of the MNEA supports the faculty senate in its role of shared governance, but emphasizes that shared governance is not the same thing as collective bargaining.  We believe that the administration and the regents can work with both the faculty senate and the HSSU-MNEA to improve Harris-Stowe State University.

While the chapter is troubled by the response of the administration and the regents, we are confident that they will ultimately respect the faculty’s decision.  HSSU-NEA will continue to prepare for May 15th and looks forward to working with the administration and the regents in achieving academic excellence for our students.