On Tuesday of this week, UNL faculty and staff found out that they would not be receiving salary increases for the upcoming fiscal year. This news came as part of an announced system-wide salary freeze, affecting personnel at UNO and UNK as well; notably, though, UNO and UNK faculty are protected through their collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and guaranteed salary adjustments despite the freeze.
Without reservation, we at AAUP-UNL are happy for our colleagues at these schools: they work exceedingly hard under difficult conditions and have earned every inch of protection they’ve garnered. However, mere hours after this news had dropped, we began hearing arguments that these CBAs are why UNL was being passed over. If those colleges weren’t requiring NU administration to pay out salary adjustments, the argument goes, then the system would have more money; ergo, the argument continues, CBAs are responsible for the NU system’s financial struggles, and so they’re responsible for the lack of salary adjustments, not to mention any program or staff cuts that might come in the next budget.
Not only do we reject this line of argument, we’ve seen it before. It’s a fairly classic argument against unionization, given a spectacular workout in recent memory as more college faculties organize nationwide; and so we expect to see more of it in Nebraska, pitting unionized faculty (UNO, UNK) against non-unionized faculty (UNL, UNMC) to dampen solidarity and new organization efforts. We stand in solidarity anyway. Organization is not the problem — it is the solution.
Below are some arguments that we’re used to hearing about unionized vs. non-unionized campuses, and our responses:
Are mandatory raises at UNO/UNK the reason that UNL is being passed over?
No. The NU system’s financial picture is complicated by many factors, including our reliance on state appropriations in an uncertain fiscal climate. Even considering the budget realities facing the system, there are many other sources of funding that could be utilized before freezing salaries of faculty and staff; at other institutions, voluntary separation initiatives, administrator salary reductions, and new microcredentialing programs have all been used to alleviate budget pressures. Cutting resources from UNL employees is not an inevitability; it is a choice, made easier by our relative inability to fight back.
If the system had to pay out a UNL salary increase, wouldn’t they just opt for program cuts instead?
Although recent program cuts at institutions around the country are distressing to watch, they are still the exception rather than the rule; 902 institutions around the country are protected by CBAs, and very few of them have suffered program cuts at times of budget uncertainty. In fact, our Big 10 peer, Rutgers University, was able to successfully fend off program cuts that the Rutgers administration tried to argue were necessary because of their existing CBA. In the last decade, organized faculty have been able to reduce or mitigate potential cuts at the University of Southern Maine, City University of New York, and Wright State University. Collective bargaining has the power to secure increases to faculty salaries during good years, but it also gives faculty more say over the budget in fiscally challenging years.
Organization is not the problem; it is the solution.
Doesn’t a faculty union make administrators more likely to cut our funding out of retaliation?
Absolutely not. Unionization efforts at UNK and UNO haven’t translated to undue budget pressures. From the 2021-22FY to the 2024-25FY, UNO and UNK have each received increases in ~$3 million to their share of state appropriations. All three central NU campuses have seen their percentage of state appropriations over that time period decrease by about 1%, whether they are protected by a CBA or not. It’s also worth noting that being non-unionized hasn’t spared UNL the rod: in the last round of budget cuts, the Lincoln campus cut $12 million and a whopping 30 staff positions.
Okay, forget about cuts. Has faculty organizing ever actually won anything?
Yes! Collective bargaining in higher education has a long track record of success, ranging from the minor to the life-changing. A 2023 organized strike at Rutgers University resulted in pay raises for all instructional faculty, from grad student to full professor (including a 43% raise for adjuncts). In 2022, organized action at Columbia University resulted in graduate student workers gaining increased healthcare and childcare resources. And as recently as last year, employees in the University of California system secured pay raises totaling just under 20% over the term of the contract. Without organization, these schools — and any other school — would have to rely on either administrative largesse or retention offers, two things in short supply within higher ed.
To us, the message is clear: the best way for us to protect our livelihoods, research, and ability to best serve the people of Nebraska is to organize. If you’re ready to help us fight, there are many ways to get involved, beginning with joining our mailing list.
