1979 Boston University strike

1979 labor strike in Boston, Massachusetts, US October 2021 October 2021 Boston, Massachusetts, United States 1979 Boston University strike April 5–14, 1979(Faculty, 04 05 1979 04 14 1979)April 5–23, 1979(Clerical workers and librarians, 04 05 1979 04 23 1979) * Boston University - American Association of University Professors Boston University Staff Organizing Committee (Distributive Workers of America District 65) Service Employees International Union Local 925 Boston University * Picketing Strike action Disagreements over terms of a new labor contract * 32.5 percent pay increase for faculty Union recognition for clerical workers and librarians The 1979 Boston University strike was a labor strike involving employees at Boston University, a private university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The strike was participated by faculty members, clerical workers, and librarians, which began on April 5 up to April 23. The changes and regulations implemented under the presidency of John Silber, who became president of the university in 1971, were the major reasons behind the strike. Over the next few years, Silber made many changes that proved unpopular with the university's faculty, and in 1975, the university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors (BU-AAUP) voted to act as a collective bargaining unit. Silber initially challenged the legality of the union, but by 1978, a court ruling mandated that the university had to commence negotiations with the union. Over the next few months, neither side came to a solid agreement, with pay increases being a particular point of contention. In early 1979, the union began preparing for strike action, and on April 5, following a disagreement over a tentative agreement that had previously been reached, the union went on strike. That same day, clerical workers and librarians (unionized under the Distributive Workers of America and the Service Employees International Union, respectively) also voted to go on strike, partially in an act of solidarity with the AAUP and partially as a way to receive union recognition. The strike resulted in the cancellation of several hundred classes and particularly affected the College of Liberal Arts. On April 14, the faculty voted to end the strike after the university agreed to the previous tentative agreement, with the provision that they not perform any sort of sympathy strike with other unions. The clerical workers and librarians remained on strike for several more days despite this, and some professors tried to hold classes on locations away from the university as a show of solidarity with the strikers. They finally ended their strike on April 23 after the university agreed to recognize the two unions. A year after the strike, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that faculty at private universities were not protected to unionize under the terms of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, and as a result, when the BU-AAUP's contract expired in 1982, the union became decertified. For this reason, historian Gary Zabel calls the strike a Pyrrhic victory for the faculty. Background Boston University#History of student and faculty activism on campus President Silber and opposition from faculty In 1971, academic John Silber became the president of Boston University (BU).Zabel 2009 690 Silber had previously worked at the University of Texas at Austin, where he had established a reputation as a New Deal liberal.Zabel 2009 690–691 However, by the late 1960s, Silber had grown hostile to the New Left and student activist groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society and embraced a more rigidly conservative stance on politics.Zabel 2009 691 Early in his presidency at BU, Silber made a series of decisions that proved unpopular with members of the university's faculty.Zabel 2009 691 In particular, Silber pushed for departments to hire friends of his at an inflated pay and vetoed some recommendations for academic tenure, particularly for professors who had expressed a left-leaning political stance.Zabel 2009 691 By 1976, the faculty senate for BU voted 377–117 in a vote of no confidence, asking Silber to resign, as did eight members of the BU board of trustees.Zabel 2009 691 Additionally, the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused Silber in 1979 of violating academic freedom and basic civil liberties, stating that they had never received as many complaints targeting a single institution as they had with regards to Silber's administration at BU.Zabel 2009 692 Around the same time that Silber joined BU, there had been a nationwide push for unionization among professors at American universities.Zabel 2009 690 In 1967, the first labor union representing professors at a bachelor degree granting college was established as a local union of the American Federation of Teachers at what is now the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.Zabel 2009 693 By 1975, dozens of universities and over 200 two-year colleges were unionized, representing approximately 15 percent of all professors in the United States.Zabel 2009 693 The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), a professional association that primarily concerned itself with defending academic freedom, also became involved in this wave when several of its university chapters began to engage in collective bargaining with their universities.Zabel 2009 693 In May 1975, the BU chapter of the AAUP (which represented 440 of BU's almost 850 fulltime professors)Jolna Stacy April 14, 1979 Faculty Claims Victory as Strike Ends at Boston University https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/04/14/faculty-claims-victory-as-strike-ends-at-boston-university/d0b86e8a-e742-48d0-9068-b2b338b3a341/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20211002003305/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/04/14/faculty-claims-victory-as-strike-ends-at-boston-university/d0b86e8a-e742-48d0-9068-b2b338b3a341/ October 2, 2021 October 2, 2021 The Washington Post held a representation election, supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, that lead to the BU-AAUP becoming a collective bargaining union.Zabel 2009 694 However, the university refused to recognize the union and engaged in a legal dispute that led to an April 1978 order by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit that the university had to recognize the union and enter into negotiations with it.Zabel 2009 694 While the university appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, they still had to commence negotiations while their appeal was pending.Zabel 2009 694 Clerical workers and librarians organize As the faculty was organizing, the clerical workers and librarians were working alongside them.Zabel 2009 695 Shortly after BU-AAUP held its representation election, these workers formed the Boston University Staff Organizing Committee, which consisted of about 800 clerical workers.Zabel 2009 695 This group, which published a newsletter and communicated with clerical workers at other universities such as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, unionized with the New York City-based Distributive Workers of America District 65.Zabel 2009 695 Meanwhile, a group of about 25 librarians unionized with Local 925.Zabel 2009 695 This local union was a joint collaboration organized by the Service Employees International Union and 9to5, National Association of Working Women, a feminist labor organization that had been founded in Boston in 1973.Zabel 2009 695 Both of these unions had held representation elections of their own by 1979, but the university refused to negotiate with them and instead filed legal action wherein they questioned the legitimacy of the elections.Zabel 2009 695 Tentative agreement reached While negotiations continued between the university and BU-AAUP, both sides began to prepare for possible strike action.Zabel 2009 694 The union and university were primarily at odds with regards to pay increases, highlighted by a letter released by a trustee in January 1979 that read, "More than anything else, we seek tranquility on campus. But if this university is to be shut down, it is better that it be shut down by a strike than as a bankrupt institution."Knight Michael January 30, 1979 Boston U. Threatened by Strike As Teachers' Talks Deteriorate en-US The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/30/archives/boston-u-threatened-by-strike-as-teachers-talks-deteriorate-we-seek.html October 1, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211001235722/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/30/archives/boston-u-threatened-by-strike-as-teachers-talks-deteriorate-we-seek.html October 1, 2021 0362-4331 At the time, the university stated that the union was seeking a 44 percent pay increase over the duration of the three-year contract, which the trustees stated would seriously hurt the university financially.Kristof Nicholas D. Nicholas Kristof January 31, 1979 Boston University Faculty Threaten Strike in Spring https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/1/31/boston-university-faculty-threaten-strike-in/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20211002000700/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/1/31/boston-university-faculty-threaten-strike-in/ October 2, 2021 October 1, 2021 The Harvard Crimson By March, the union had reduced this amount to 14 percent for the first year and two smaller amounts for the next two years of the contract, but the two sides remained at an impasse.Knight Michael March 16, 1979 Faculty Union at Boston University Votes a Strike en-US The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/16/archives/faculty-union-at-boston-university-votes-a-strike-wage-demands.html October 1, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211002002721/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/16/archives/faculty-union-at-boston-university-votes-a-strike-wage-demands.html October 2, 2021 0362-4331 That same month, the union voted to strike on March 21 and March 22 unless progress was made in negotiations,Zabel 2009 694 but this was called off on March 20.Knight Michael March 21, 1979 An Accord on Key Points Averts A Strike by Faculty at Boston U en-US The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/21/archives/an-accord-on-key-points-averts-a-strike-by-faculty-at-boston-u.html October 1, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211002002647/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/21/archives/an-accord-on-key-points-averts-a-strike-by-faculty-at-boston-u.html October 2, 2021 0362-4331 However, the union also voted to strike on April 4 unless an agreement had been made by March 30. On March 31, the university and union came to an agreement that would see changes in governance and tenure rules as well as a 32.4 percent salary increase over the course of the three-year contract.Zabel 2009 694 Additionally, the contract would expire at the beginning of that year's academic term, which the union felt increased their leverage in future contract negotiations by allowing for strike action that would affect that academic term.Zabel 2009 694 As part of the agreement (which was solidified with a public handshaking between Silber and negotiators), both side's bargaining units would present the agreements for deliberation amongst their respective sides for a maximum of 72 hours before a straightforward yea or nay vote.Zabel 2009 694 On April 2, faculty members voted 252–17 to approve the contract, while the following day the board of trustees were set to vote.Zabel 2009 694 However, instead of voting, the board asked for changes to the contract that would have moved the contract's expiration date to the end of the academic term and barred governance from counting towards faculty member's service requirements.Zabel 2009 694 The previous day, Silber had held a closed-doors meeting at the Algonquin Club with several prominent members of the board. According to historian Gary Zabel, the decision to ask for these changes had been determined then.Zabel 2009 694 The union was outraged with this reneging, and on April 3, BU-AAUP member and sociology professor George Psathas interrupted Silber while he was lecturing at the Boston University School of Law to announce that the faculty would strike on April 5.Zabel 2009 695 Course of the strike horizontal 400 Piven2 crop.jpg Howard Zinn, 2009 (cropped).jpg BU professors Frances Fox Piven (left) and Howard Zinn were both involved in the strike.Zabel 2009 696 A color photograph of a woman seated at a table behind a microphone A color photograph of an older man in front of a black background, shot from his chest up The strike commenced on the morning of April 5, with picketing occurring throughout BU's campus.Zabel 2009 695 About 400 professors participated,Knight Michael April 6, 1979 Faculty Begins Contract Strike at Boston University en-US The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/06/archives/faculty-begins-contract-strike-at-boston-university-campus-outrage.html October 1, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211001235017/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/06/archives/faculty-begins-contract-strike-at-boston-university-campus-outrage.html October 1, 2021 0362-4331 with some picketing with signs that included quotes from Paul the Apostle, William Shakespeare, and Voltaire. BU's student newspaper The Daily Free Press reported that many undergraduate students were supportive of the strike, and that support from graduate students was even stronger, with several grad students forming the Graduate Employees Organizing Committee to coordinate support.Zabel 2009 695 By the end of the first day, the union reported that about 100 percent of the professors in the College of Liberal Arts were on strike. However, the majority of the professors in both the College of Engineering and the School of Law continued to hold classes.Zabel 2009 695 According to The Harvard Crimson, about 80 percent of the roughly 900 professors at BU cancelled their classes for the day.Kristof Nicholas D. Nicholas Kristof April 11, 1979 The B.U. Faculty: Striking Back https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/4/11/the-bu-faculty-striking-back-pbjbohn/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20211002000652/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/4/11/the-bu-faculty-striking-back-pbjbohn/ October 2, 2021 October 2, 2021 The Harvard Crimson Shortly after the strike began, the clerical workers and librarians voted to also go on strike, both as a representation strike and as a solidarity action with the faculty members.Zabel 2009 695 Additional support for the strike came from the maintenance workers, whose union allowed members to participate in the strike on an individual basis. On the first day, The New York Times reported that the events at BU were "something like a general strike".Zabel 2009 690 On April 9, the students' union at BU announced they were filing a class-action lawsuit seeking tuition reimbursement for classes cancelled due to the strike. After about one week, the university moved to end the strike by approving the tentative agreement as it was originally written, though with an agreement that BU-AAUP would not participate in sympathy strikes, effectively meaning that the faculty would go back to work despite the clerical workers and librarians continuing to strike.Zabel 2009 696 While some faculty members wished to continue the strike in support of District 65 and Local 925, many members of the BU-AAUP were expressing a desire to return to work, and prominent member Marx W. Wartofsky urged the members to agree to the deal.Zabel 2009 696 On April 14, the union voted 271–23 to approve the contract. A majority of the professors returned to work, though some refused to hold classes and others, such as Frances Fox Piven and Howard Zinn, tried to hold classes in locations outside of the university.Zabel 2009 696 The Harvard Crimson reported that up to 150 professors were holding classes in this manner in order to show some solidarity with the other unions.Kristof Nicholas D. Nicholas Kristof April 24, 1979 B.U. Employees End Strike; Trustees Promise Negotiations https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/4/24/bu-employees-end-strike-trustees-promise/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20211002000651/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/4/24/bu-employees-end-strike-trustees-promise/ October 2, 2021 October 2, 2021 The Harvard Crimson Meanwhile, District 65 and Local 925 continued to strike until Silber covertly told them that the administration would agree to recognize the unions if they called off their strike and did not make public his communications with them.Zabel 2009 696 The unions approved and ended their strike as well, having gained recognition and new labor contracts.Zabel 2009 696 Their strike officially ended on April 23. Aftermath Following the strike, Silber sought to fire five professors who remained on strike in support of District 65 and Local 925, including Zinn, but a campaign organized by Nobel Prize-winner George Wald caused Silber to abandon these efforts.Zabel 2009 697 In December 1979, the faculty once again voted to urge for Silber's removal, but these calls were dismissed by Silber and other members of the board of trustees.Knight Michael December 19, 1979 Faculty Vote Urges Ouster of Boston U. President en-US The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/19/archives/faculty-vote-urges-ouster-of-boston-u-president.html October 1, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211001235018/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/19/archives/faculty-vote-urges-ouster-of-boston-u-president.html October 1, 2021 0362-4331 In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the court case NLRB v. Yeshiva University that professors at private universities were not protected to unionize under the terms of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, as they held managerial powers.Zabel 2009 696 As a result, in 1982, when the labor contract with BU-AAUP expired, the university sought and attained decertification for the union.Zabel 2009 697 In retrospect, Zabel called the strike a Pyrrhic victory and stated that Silber's eventual success in breaking the union was emblematic of university administrations' efforts to "regain lost ground" following the radical period of the 1960s and 1970s.Zabel 2009 697 In spite of the opposition he faced, Silber managed to solidify his power amongst the university's administration, and remained the university's president until his resignation in 2000.Zabel 2009 692 See also 2024 Boston University strike References Sources Zabel Gary https://books.google.com/books?id=xmVsBgAAQBAJ The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History M. E. Sharpe 2009 978-1-317-45707-7 Brenner Aaron 690–697 en The Boston University Strike of 1979 Day Benjamin Ness Immanuel Immanuel Ness Further reading Kristof Nicholas D. Nicholas Kristof November 28, 1979 John R. Silber: War and Peace at Boston University https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/11/28/john-r-silber-war-and-peace/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20211002000659/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/11/28/john-r-silber-war-and-peace/ October 2, 2021 October 2, 2021 The Harvard Crimson Winslow Cal January 23, 2021 The 1970s: Decade of the Rank and File https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/1970s-decade-strike-workers-labor-history/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20211001235745/https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/1970s-decade-strike-workers-labor-history/ October 1, 2021 October 1, 2021 Jacobin en-US Category:1970s strikes in the United States Category:1979 in Boston Category:1979 labor disputes and strikes Category:American Association of University Professors Category:April 1979 in the United States Category:Boston University Category:Education labor disputes in the United States Category:Labor disputes in Massachusetts Category:Labor disputes led by the United Auto Workers Category:Labor relations by company Category:Service Employees International Union