Union Dues Bill Angers Cal State Professors

California State University professors are spoiling for another labor fight. This time, it’s not against the administration, but their own union.

A growing number of faculty members are hopping mad at a bill speeding through the Legislature that would force about 74,000 Cal State and University of California employees to pay union dues or donate an equivalent amount to charity for at least four years.

“Is this a new form of government?” asks Chris Freiling, a Cal State San Bernardino math professor. “Minority rule?”

Only about 21% of the 93,000 UC and Cal State employees represented by 20 unions actually pay union dues. The rest of these workers--clerical and maintenance, nurses, physicians, police officers, lab technicians, professors and others--do not.

Yet these unions, as required by state law, represent all employees in their bargaining unit while negotiating pay raises and benefits and handling grievances.

Labor leaders have persuaded key lawmakers that it is time to end the unfairness of such a “free rider” system.

“The dues-paying members have been shouldering the burden on behalf of everybody,” said state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo). “It just seems in fairness that people who benefit from their efforts should pay their fair share.”

So O’Connell joined Senate President Pro Tem John Burton and other prominent Democrats to easily pass the “fair share” bill in the Senate last month. It now awaits action in the Assembly, and union supporters expect it to be approved.

Under the bill, the 74,000 non-dues-paying employees would be forced to either join the union or have “fair share” fees--about 85% of full union dues--automatically deducted from their paychecks, but they would not have voting rights. They could opt out because of religious or conscientious objections, provided they made equivalent donations to a charity.

UC professors, most of whom are not represented by a union, are specifically excluded from the bill. Unions representing teaching assistant unions at UCLA, UC Berkeley and possibly other campuses would be covered.

Such “fair share” fee arrangements are fairly common in faculty contracts. Los Angeles community college instructors pay such agency fees.

The UC and Cal State administrations oppose the bill as written, because it would impose union fees for four years before employees could vote to rescind them.

“We think the bill should be amended to provide an election upfront, so that no fees are imposed until approved by a majority of employees in the bargaining unit,” said Sam Strafaci, Cal State’s senior director of human resources.

Similar legislation has passed twice in previous years and been vetoed twice by Republican governors.

Now, with a Democrat in the governor’s office, the legislation is written more boldly, establishing such fees until Jan. 1, 2004. At that point, 30% of employees in any union could petition for an election to rescind the fees.

The prospect of having fees automatically deducted from paychecks without their consent has angered Cal State professors on campuses from Sonoma to San Diego.

Charles Baird, a Cal State Hayward economist, warned one lawmaker that he will file a lawsuit as soon as the Legislature empowers the California Faculty Assn. “to steal money from my paycheck.”

Union dues now average $525 for Cal State professors.

At Cal State Northridge, 119 faculty members have signed a petition calling on the union to withdraw its sponsorship of the bill and on the Legislature to stand down until professors can vote on the issue.

Similar opposition is surfacing on other campuses, with opponents revealing philosophical differences with the union. Unlike the union, these professors favor Cal State’s push for merit pay for faculty who excel at teaching and research.

In a letter urging Gov. Gray Davis to oppose the bill, 49 professors from eight campuses estimated that the union would accumulate a 200% increase in dues and use the money “as a war chest to fight the issue of merit pay.”

Neither union officials nor Cal State administrators have precise figures on the windfall to the union, though estimated increases in dues range from 62% to 180%.