Miami-Dade Community College (Florida)

Within a month of the election of the union and the suspension of MDCC's established governance bodies, the president of the new faculty union, Professor Mark Richard, wrote to the chair of the Faculty Commission, Professor German Munoz, to state the union's "position that any new governance mechanism created is illegitimate. Anything set up by the committee should not be used to sabotage the current existing Senates." Professor Richard urged the commission "to stand up for the rights of the displaced senators" and to refuse to "be used as a tool to replace those who are the product of the democratic process," In a memorandum dated April 9, the college's labor counsel responded to Professor Richard's letter to Professor Munoz, informing him that it was "clearly improper" for the union president "to try to coerce the group of employees serving on the Faculty Commission . . . either directly or indirectly or through their chairperson . . . into refusing to carry out the charge that was given to them as part of their official College duties."

Related Results

The Faculty Commission completed its assignment by the end of April. On May 11 President Padron distributed the commission's report to the entire campus. The report recommended "the creation of an academic and student support council on each campus and a parallel college-wide group," with representation (both elected and appointed) from the faculty as well as from the administration, the staff, and the student body. The report also set forth "guidelines for membership and selection." The president indicated his acceptance of the recommendations and announced his intention to implement them as part of a new "enhanced academic management structure" for the college, which included the redefinition of department chairs as full-time "managers."

In June 1998, elections were conducted and appointments were made to the College-wide Academic and Student Support Council (CASSC). On July 15 Provost Lukenbill announced the members of the 1998-99 college-wide CASSC, in addition to the appointments of deans of academic affairs and deans of academic and student support services. When classes began in fall 1998, elections were conducted and appointments were made to the Campus Academic and Student Support Councils (which also came to be referred to by the acronym CASSC). The basic elements of the new governance structure were in place as of November 1998, when the provost announced the names of the fivemember college-wide CASSC Coordinating Committee.

In the meantime, relations between the Miami-Dade administration and the United Faculty of Miami-Dade Community College had remained rancorous. In spring 1998, a controversy erupted over the administration's decision to prohibit the newly formed union from using the campus voice-mail system to communicate union-related information. UFMDCC filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Florida PERC, but PERC's general counsel found that the union failed to demonstrate that a unilateral change in terms and conditions of employment had occurred. In mid July the union filed an amended unfair labor practice charge, reasserting the allegations set forth in its earlier complaint and adding a more detailed complaint about the administration's suspension of the college's I-80 governance system. This time PERC agreed to conduct a hearing. The matter was heading for litigation by summer 1999, when it was withdrawn by mutual agreement.