FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 7, 2005
CONTACT: Eve Weinbaum, 413-577-0458
Tom Juravich, 413-545-5986
Labor Studies Under Attack:
Faculty and Students File Charges
Faculty members in Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts filed charges today with the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission charging that the administration punished the department in retaliation for union activity on campus. Professors Tom Juravich, Eve Weinbaum and Stephanie Luce also filed union grievances, charging that their academic freedom has been violated and their workload unfairly increased.
Students filed information requests as a preliminary step toward filing grievances of their own. "Provost Seymour and Dean Rifkin can't even give us a reason for their decisions," said graduate student Dan Lutz. "They should meet with their own faculty and students and treat us with respect."
Labor Studies professors have been visible on a wide range of issues: supporting the rights of Resident Assistants to unionize, leading the Save UMass coalition, and developing a campaign for more faculty members - a plan initially opposed by the administration who wanted to focus instead on new construction. In retaliation, the administration has canceled a search for a new professor and cut the department's budget. "No other department has been treated this way," said Labor Studies Professor Stephanie Luce. "We are being singled out for attack because of our political activity on behalf of workers' rights on campus and around the world."
When a junior professor left the program in 2001, the Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences promised that Labor Studies could hire someone to replace him. Because of budget cuts, the new dean did not authorize the search for four years. In July 2005, based on the strong performance of the program, Dean Janet Rifkin allocated funds for the position and promised that the department would be allowed to hire. "We lined up outstanding candidates with diverse backgrounds, who would bring exciting new research and teaching to UMass. It is devastating to tell them that the search has been canceled. It undermines the reputation of our program and the University" said Professor Tom Juravich, Director of the Labor Center.
The UMass Amherst department is widely acknowledged as one of the leading Labor Studies programs in the country. With a 100% placement rate, its graduates go on to leadership positions in labor unions, human rights organizations, government and nonprofit organizations working on economic and social justice. Cornell University Professor Kate Bronfenbrenner describes the UMass Labor Center as "the premier graduate program in the country for students interested in pursuing labor research, policy, and leadership positions in the labor movement. What makes the program outstanding is the high caliber of its faculty and the prominent role they play in the field of Labor Studies nationwide."
At universities across the country, labor programs are being threatened. As conservative state governments and university administrators gain power, programs about unions and workers' organizing have been among their first targets. The Labor Studies program at the University of Indiana suffered huge cuts, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger reached into the University of California's budget to take $3.8 million out of its labor research and education programs.
At a time when UMass is expanding its student body, building new facilities, and hiring 250 new permanent faculty members, the attack on a successful department is unusual. Graduate student Heidi Hansen said that she chose UMass over Harvard Law School or the University of California Berkeley precisely because the Labor Studies faculty members "are the most dedicated and academically demanding professors I have met. They have earned my highest respect as teachers and as human beings." Another Labor Center student, Tara McCauley, said, "I am frustrated that my education has suffered because UMass administrators underfund our program. UMass claims to prioritize diversity, but the reality of the administration's decisions proves this to be a false promise. This administration creates a hostile environment for the diverse constituencies it pretends to support."