UNION REP AT SEMO; FACULTY HEARS OF BENEFITS WITH MFT

Southeast Missouri State University faculty could benefit from joining the Missouri Federation of Teachers, an official of the labor union told a gathering of faculty members Wednesday.

E.R. Dalrymple of Springfield, a field representative of the Missouri Federation of Teachers, said the union, affiliated with the AFL-CIO, could aid the faculty in salary negotiations.

"It's money that people are after and this is the thrust we have been following in most cases," he said.

Without an organized effort, he said, faculty at Missouri's colleges and universities "are going to continue to flounder for dollars."

The Missouri Federation of Teachers is part of the American Federation of Teachers, which represents about 800,000 educators nationwide, including elementary, secondary, college and university teachers.

But the union only has about 7,000 members in Missouri, which doesn't have collective bargaining for public employees on a statewide basis. That membership is comprised largely of elementary and secondary school teachers, said Dalrymple, although the union does represent faculty at several of the state's community colleges. The closest such institution to this area is Jefferson Community College at Hillsboro, he said.

While there is no statewide collective bargaining for public employees, Dalrymple said his union has collective bargaining agreements with the St. Louis, Kansas City and Ste. Genevieve school districts.

AFT locals are the collective bargaining agents for teachers in many major U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Dalrymple spoke to about 30 faculty members at a meeting of the university's Faculty Senate.

After the presentation, Faculty Senate Chairman Allen Gathman explained to a reporter that faculty senators had expressed an interest in learning what the various national teacher groups AFT, National Education Association and the American Association of University Professors have to offer.

"There's no active push to unionize at the moment," said Gathman.

Dalrymple said the AFT was organized in Chicago in 1916.

"We believe in collective bargaining. We believe in militancy," he told faculty members.

A former high school principal and later superintendent in Missouri schools, Dalrymple said the labor union can help teachers in negotiations with school administrations.

"Strike is an ugly word," he said. "It is illegal in Missouri." But Missouri teachers can make their views known without actually striking, he said.

In Ste. Genevieve three or four years ago, dissatisfied teachers stayed home from school. "It was a terrible malady," remarked Dalrymple. "They all got chalk flu."

The school district quickly came up with a salary increase for teachers, he said.

"You people have a lot of power and you can exercise that power if you so choose," he told the Faculty Senate.

Dalrymple said that from a practical point of view at least 100 or more of the university's 400 faculty members would need to join the union in order for it to be an effective force on campus. "We have to have political muscle," he maintained.

He said it's important for teachers to have an organization that can lobby the state legislature, which has a lot of power when it comes to state funding for education.

It's also important, he said, for faculty to have a voice with the board of regents at a college or university. "You have to work with the board of regents."