Provost Steven House sent out an email on Tuesday, Feb. 5, updating Elon University on a petition filed by the Service Employees International Union, Workers United Southern Region (SEIU). The SEIU filed a petition on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018, with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking them to force the university to hold a vote among adjunct, limited-term and visiting faculty members on the subject of forming a labor union at Elon. The NLRB, a federal agency that works to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices in the private sector, ordered that the vote must take place.
The faculty members included in the vote include all limited-term, visiting, and adjunct faculty teaching at least one credit-bearing undergraduate course in the College of Arts and Sciences; the School of Communications; the School of Education; or the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business. These faculty must have also taught at least one credit hour since the spring 2018 semester.
The voting will take place by mail, with ballots being mailed out on Tuesday, Feb. 19, and having to be returned to NLRB by no later than Tuesday, March 12. Faculty members who should be able to vote and who don’t receive a ballot by Tuesday, Feb. 26, should reach out to the NLRB by calling either their Region 10 office at 404-331-2896 or the national toll-free line at 844-762-6572.
The results will be based on the number of ballots cast, not by the number of ballots that were sent out. The deans in each school can answer faculty members' questions that have not yet been answered, or they can visit the website set up by Elon at elon.edu/union.
President Connie Book, House and some of the deans still oppose the unionization efforts. The university administration believes that due to having a new president they will be able to address the concerns that have been brought up.