Faculty may soon pay union dues

By Matthew L. Green
Daily Forty-Niner

Some California State University faculty members are fuming over a recent Assembly bill forcing all of them to pay a union fee regardless of whether they belong to a union.
 
Bill B645, which passed Thursday 49-24 through the California State Assembly, may force CSU and University of California faculty to pay an annual fee of about $500 each to unions, which represent all faculty even if they decline to pay union dues.
 
The bill would force nonmembers to pay less in union fees than the fee union members have to pay, said Hamdi Bilici, union president at Cal State Long Beach.
 
The California Faculty Association -- a union representing 20,000 CSU professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches -- wants nonmembers to pick up the tab for the representation that union members have to pay for, Bilici said.
 
Recently the union battled for more than a year with the CSU administration to get all faculty a labor contract with raises and benefits. The faculty union and the CSU reached an agreement in May.
 
"Theyíre having a free ride," Bilici said. "When a faculty member has a problem, we donít ask them whether they are a member. Those costs [for helping nonmembers] should be passed on to everyone. This bill makes nonmembers pay a fair share."
 
Some faculty members disagreed. "Nobody asked faculty whether they wanted to pay for this," said assistant professor William S. Moore, who added that he is not a union member and does not want to become one. "They should have given us some opportunity to discuss this. We shouldnít have to pay for this."
 
Other faculty, who refused to give their names, also expressed their disapproval.
 
Bilici said the members of the union, which 38 percent of CSU faculty belong to, want nonmembers to pay dues.
 
Many other professors who would not go on record said they thought the fee should be optional.
 
The bill is expected to pass the state Senate next week and then to be signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis.