A Boston labor consultant hired by USF to help thwart a union drive by adjunct faculty has come under fire in Massachusetts.
Labor leaders there contend that Katherine Lev may have an anti-union bias that affects her rulings as a member of the Massachusetts board that handles labor disputes involving public-sector unions, the Boston Globe reported last week.
Lev should either resign from the board or give up the USF consulting job, the labor leaders said.
“A zebra’s stripes don’t change,” Steven Tolman of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO told the Globe. “It’s unethical to put a union-buster on a board that is supposed to be a neutral arbitrator in workplace disputes.”
The USF administration, which strongly opposes adjuncts’ attempt to form a union, hired Lev last month to hold voluntary informational sessions for adjuncts on all three campuses.
The administration also sent out a seven-minute video presentation by Lev, who warns adjuncts that “it is possible” that some of them would get less money after collective bargaining between a union and the administration.
Adjunct faculty on all three campuses are voting – by mail – on a proposal that would allow them to form a collective bargaining union. Voting ends March 13.
Header photo courtesy of Faculty Forward
