There has been a strong showing of support for our union. Below are excerpts from letters that have been sent expressing support for us. (Click on the names to see the full letters.)
-
Clayton Sinyai, Executive Director of The Catholic Labor Network
"The right of workers to organize in labor unions is one of the most basic elements of
Catholic Social teaching... it is most disappointing to hear that the administration
of St. Leo's has unilaterally abrogated this right for its own faculty."
-
Robert Janusko Prof of English Emeritis Ashland University
"As an Benedictine/Jesuit-trained
academician with over 50 years of university teaching, 20 of them in correctional education, and as
both president of the first higher education collective bargaining unit in Ohio and past president of the
Ohio Conference AAUP, I find your actions reprehensible."
-
Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice
"Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice stands in solidarity with the faculty union at
St. Leo University as it continues its efforts to bargain collectively for just wages,
job security, health and retirement benefits, and other improvements to the work-
place that befit their dignity as human beings created in the image of God."
- Roscoe Hightower, Jr., Ph.D., President of the United Faculty of Florida (UFF) Florida A & M University (FAMU) Chapter: "We are indeed experiencing difficult times, however, times are not so bad that leadership needs to unilaterally strip away and reject faculty's contractual rights on a dark unannounced Friday afternoon."
- Nicole Morse, Assistant Professor of Multimedia Studies, FAU: "To have made this momentous decision with no faculty consultation and in the middle of a pandemic makes it clear faculty voices are not important to the administration, or to the Board of Trustees."
- Robin Goodman, Professor of English, FSU:
"A pandemic is not a good time to leave faculty out in the cold."
- Ben Serber, President, UFF-FSU-GAU:
"Saint Leo University claims that this decision was taken in order to move to a shared governance model that can better support the institution's need for changes. But doing so unilaterally, in a single vote, without consulting or even informing either UFF-SLU or the Saint Leo faculty senate is inconsistent with any reasonable understanding of what 'shared governance' means." (2020-11-12)
- Steve Shipman, President, UFF-New College:
"It is completely unethical to make sweeping decisions that affect people's lives without giving them a say in those decisions. This move reflects a profound disrespect of the faculty and is inconsistent with claims that the institution makes to value their dignity."
- Bruce Nissen, Retired Labor Professor and editor of the book Theories of the Labor Movement and its chapter on Social Catholic Teaching:
"[S]ince Rerum Novarum, the church affirms unions and their importance for working people in maintaining a life of dignity. This is very damaging to the reputation of St. Leo University."
- Mike Budd, Retired, UFF Chapter:
"I and many others ask you to live up to SLU's catholic identity and respect social justice and the rights of working people as publicly declared on your website and elsewhere. You can do this by recognizing UFF-SLU as the collective bargaining agent for full-time faculty and restore all rights to them as described in the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement."
- Dr. Scott R. Freeman, UFF-President, Seminole State College Chapter:
"The timing of such a major decision affecting faculty, with no faculty consultation, and coming in the middle of a pandemic where all parties are trying their hardest to support the school and students, leaves no choice but to see this as clear indication that faculty voices are not important to the Administration or the Board of Trustees."
- Yovanna Pineda, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of History:
"Recognize UFF-SLU as the collective bargaining agent for full-time faculty and restore all rights granted to them as outlined in the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement immediately."
- Paul Ortiz, Professor of History, University of Florida
and President, United Faculty of Florida-UF (NEA/FEA/AFL-CIO):
"I beg you President Senese to reverse this remarkably undemocratic decision promulgated by your Board of Trustees, a decision that goes against over a century of Catholic Doctrine dating back to Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (1891) on the Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor. I know that you will do the right thing in these matters. Please recognize your faculty union!"
- Candi Churchill, UFF Faculty Member:
"I am disappointed by your brazen attack on shared governance by refusing to honor the 40 year relationship with faculty through collective bargaining unionism. It is a power grab, plain and simple. This action flies in the face of so many Catholic tenets."
- Meredith Miska, UF-GAU Co-President:
"These duplicitous actions are not the actions of a university whose Catholic identity calls them to "cultivate servant leadership that respect and upholds the dignity of faculty, staff and all members of the university" as it is put in your Catholic Identity Statement."
- Bobby Mermer, University of Florida Graduate Assistants United, Co-President University of Florida Department of Political Science, PhD Candidate:
"It is clear through Leo XIII's original proclamation and Benedict XVI's reaffirmation that the Catholic social teaching demands you immediately reverse course and recognize UFF-SLU as the collective bargaining agent for full time faculty at St. Leo University and restore all rights and privileges previously agreed to in their collective bargaining agreement."
- Susan Ariew, Karin Braunsberger, Richard Manning, Gregory McColm, Victor Peppard, Frank Pyrtle, III; Arthur Shapiro, Robert Welker, Sonia Ramirez Wohlmuth
from the United Faculty of Florida, University of South Florida Chapter:
"This unilateral decision by the Board is a public expression of indifference towards St. Leo's faculty, and for those people who take St. Leo as a moral leader in the community, it will be taken as such. This will contribute to the social unraveling that the Church is working to prevent, and we strongly urge you to press the Board to reverse that decision."
- Kelly Osterman, Co-President, Graduate Assistants United University of South Florida:
"These actions speak volumes: it is painfully clear that Saint Leo's administration and Board of Trustees do not see its faculty as important. This is not the action of an organization that advocates for social justice. This is not the action of an organization that recognizes "the dignity of all human beings and demands social and economic justice for all." This is the action of an organization that pays lip service to those values in its pursuit of selfish goals benefitting the individuals at the helm."
- Dr. Ramie Gougeon UFF-UWF Chapter President:
"Restore the UFF chapter at Saint Leo as the collective bargaining agent for full-time faculty and restore all rights granted to them as outlined in the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement immediately. Show your students that the administrators of Saint Leo University are indeed living up to the values you espouse, and that you do indeed cultivate servant leadership that respects and upholds the dignity of faculty, staff and all members of the university."
We are not alone. Together we are strong!
