EWU faculty votes to unionize

The Eastern Washington University faculty has voted to unionize under a state collective bargaining law, making it the second state school to do so.

Central Washington University was the first school to vote for a union under the law.

No other state schools have formally started the union process, said Marvin Schurke, executive director of the state Public Employment Relations Commission.

There have been signs of interest, however, at Western Washington University, he said.

The 2002 law gave formal approval for faculty employees to unionize and negotiate collective bargaining contracts.

EWU’s union effort required the rallying of about 550 eligible voters.

The vote tally Friday showed 88 percent approval, with 338 voters supporting unionization and 46 opposed.

If no one files an objection, the union will be certified today, Schurke said.

The vote closes the chapter on some hard feelings that resulted in April when EWU’s board of trustees voted to break off its 10-year relationship with the informal in-house association called the United Faculty of Eastern.

The trustees said their decision was driven by legal concerns and the desire to be in compliance with state law.

EWU faculty filed to be a union, held the election and kept the same United Faculty of Eastern name. Now, in the eyes of state law, EWU and UFE are in an official relationship.

“It’s the difference between common law marriage and the blessing of clergy. (In the legal sense), they’re married now,” Schurke said. “In a sense, they were living together.”

All the hard feelings are a thing of the past, said Tony Flinn, president of the faculty union.

“This is a very happy ending,” Flinn said. “What it does is stabilize and make more comfortable the relationship between the faculty and the administration.”

In a news release Monday, EWU administrators expressed their pleasure with the cooperative relationship.