AU will bargain with the shuttle bus drivers' union, according to a statement President Neil Kerwin released Friday. Kerwin released the statement after the board of trustees discussed the issue during its meeting Friday, according to Board Chairman Gary Abramson.
"The bottom line is that they're not going to go into extensive legal appeals - they're just going to sit down and engage in collective bargaining and negotiate with them," Abramson said.
AU submitted objections to the National Labor Relations Board's decision to certify Teamsters Local Union 922 as the drivers' representative last October. The objections claimed the election that certified the union was unfair, The Eagle previously reported.
The university appealed the decision because it violated drivers' right to vote and the obligation of government to adhere to established policies and procedures, Kerwin said in his official statement.
"I understood that by acting on these principles, we risked being viewed as opposing another important principle that we also value highly - the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively," he said in the statement.
In a decision released Tuesday, the NLRB ordered the university to recognize the Teamsters as the drivers' bargaining representative. The order also requires the university to prominently display signs acknowledging that the NLRB found the university in violation of federal law. The signs must also state that the university will bargain with the union and will not interfere with the drivers' right to unionize.
"I continue to believe that the election was significantly compromised by the conduct of the government official responsible for administering the election," Kerwin said in the statement.
The university's objections centered around one driver who was a few minutes late to the election, The Eagle previously reported. The NLRB official presiding over the election did not allow the late driver to vote, and the university claimed that the NLRB official should have placed the driver's vote in a "contested ballot" envelope so the union and the university could mutually decide whether or not to count it.
However, the NLRB ruled in April to certify the union because there were no extraordinary circumstances leading to the driver's lateness.
Kerwin's decision came after Kerwin's decision came after AU Solidarity collected more than 800 signatures supporting the drivers, and the Undergraduate Senate passed a resolution supporting the union, according to John Cipriani, the then-Class of 2009 senator who introduced the resolution.
The university's decision to recognize and begin bargaining with the drivers' union was an indication AU students did have the power to make their opinions heard, said SG President Joe Vidulich, who backed the drivers' unionization.
"I just think that this once again shows that AU students really do have a voice," he said. "We fought for Aramark workers to get a living wage, we fought for a corrupt university president to be kicked out of office and now fought for our colleagues that drive us to and from the Metro for their rights as bus drivers. And I just think that's great. Where else in the country can you actually have a say?" The university has not yet contacted the union to set up dates for negotiation, according to Aaron Sawyer, Teamsters Local Union 922 secretary-treasurer.
It was upsetting it took so long for the university to decide to recognize the union, Cipriani said.
"It's good that they've [agreed to negotiate], but in the future, the university should be a lot more mindful of people's rights and the ability to unionize," he said.
