Feb. 25, 2009 — V.I. Superior Court has turned down the University of the Virgin Islands' writ of review asking the court to prevent counting ballots from a 2006 faculty vote, possibly paving the way for a unionized faculty.
"With this ruling we are about to be granted what has been our legal right from the very beginning," said UVI faculty chair David Gould. "This is final. It was dismissed with prejudice, so they can't go back and file again. Now we have an opportunity to go on with counting the ballots from the 2006 election, and we know a large majority favor forming a union. So this is it, assuming the administration doesn't try to take it to the Supreme Court or [try] some other delaying tactic."
The UVI faculty initially filed for AAUP representation in January 2004. (See "UVI Administration Fighting Faculty Unionization Bid.")
That year, about 81 full-time faculty members signed authorization cards in January requesting that the Public Employees Relation Board conduct a secret-ballot election to determine whether UVI's chapter of the American Association of University Professors should represent them in collective bargaining.
Although the AAUP is not a union, a very small number of its mainland chapters have collective-bargaining status.
The UVI administration at first gave its support to the faculty and presented its own proposal to the PERB, which the AAUP decided to accept. However, the administration later filed a motion with the PERB to dismiss the faculty request for a unionization vote.
The university's administration has steadfastly opposed collective bargaining in the faculty. "It's not in the best interest of the university," UVI President LaVerne Ragster said in 2004. "We're a small institution with limited resources, and anything that would use up those limited resources is not in the best interest of the university."
PERB ruled that UVI must allow the election Sept. 22, 2006. On Nov. 8 of that year, the V.I. chapter of the AAUP held an election that would have made the chapter a collective-bargaining unit functioning as a union. UVI filed for a writ of review in V.I. Superior Court, and the court stayed the election pending the outcome of that case.
On Nov. 11, 2006, during the UVI Board of Trustees meeting, 25 or so teachers and professors picketed outside. Inside, trustees reiterated their opposition to unionization. (See "Rejecting Protesters, UVI Board Opposes Unionization.")
PERB asked the court for a summary judgment in its favor on Nov. 16, 2006.
Fast forward to 2009: On Jan. 7, the V.I. Superior Court denied PERB's request for summary judgment. Then, on Feb. 20, the court formally ruled in favor of PERB, denying UVI's challenge.
In his ruling, V.I. Superior Court Judge Michael C. Dunston said that by statute UVI had 20 days to appeal PERB's Sept. 22, 2006, order to allow the election. UVI filed for a writ of review Oct. 23, 2006, more than 20 days after the PERB ruling, so the court's jurisdiction over the question expired, Dunston said, dismissing the request with prejudice.
Gould said the faculty push for unionization was not motivated so much by a need for salary increases as for leverage to protect academic independence and faculty control of departments.
"Like all government employees, we have a legally guaranteed right to a collective-bargaining unit," he said. "In the seven years I've been at UVI, the university administration has used every means in its power to deprive faculty of their power and authority in university matters, even in matters of curriculum where faculty are normally in charge of what they teach. … We want to be able to bargain collectively and have some sort of power to oppose decisions we think are detrimental to the university's function."
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