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Inventory of the United Professors of California Collection, 1965-1985
1986/59
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Table of contents
Title: United Professors of California Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1965-1985
Accession number: 1986/59
Creator:
United Professors of California
Extent: 20 records boxes; 20.0 cubic feet
Repository:
San Francisco State University. Labor Archives & Research Center
San Francisco, California 94132
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the Center's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives & Research Center. All requests for
permission to publish or quote from materials must be submitted in writing
to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the Labor Archives & Research Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be
obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], United Professors of California Collection, 1986/59, Labor Archives & Research Center,
San Francisco State University.
The office files of the United Professors of California
(UPC) were donated by Louise Kantor, President of the UPC in June
and October of 1986. Contact person is Marilyn Oberg, Hayward
State University Library. The collection was processed by Susan P. Sherwood, June 1987.
The United Professors of California, a statewide college
faculty union, was founded on 13 June 1970 as the result of an
alliance between the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and
the Association of California State College Professors (ACSCP).
A merger was proposed at a news conference on 29 September 1969
whereby the AFT College Council and ACSCP State Council would be
dissolved and a single faculty union, tentatively named the Union
of Associated Professors (UAP), would be created in their place,
The new organization was renamed the United Professors of
California during the course of negotiations. Following a
membership vote an interim board composed of representatives of
the two councils called for the dissolution of the former
organizations in favor of the UPC. AFT locals within the
University of California system remained with the UPC until 1971
when they divided to form an autonomous UC Council, leaving CSUC
locals with the UPC. UPC representation after 1971 was confined
to the California State University College campuses.
Original impetus for organizing the California college came
from the AFT, which began a collective bargaining campaign in
April of 1966 in conjunction with its locals at San Francisco
State, San Jose State and Long Beach State. Much of the newly
created UPC's energies from 1970 to 1978 were devoted, as its AFT
predecessor's had been, to getting a collective bargaining bill
for college faculty passed through the California state
legislature. Former AFT College Council members Bill Smith, Art
Bierman and Arnold Mechanic served respectively as UPC Presidents
for the years 1970-73 and provided a continuum of AFT policy and
priorities.
Early opposition to collective bargaining and to the UPC
came from three rival academic organizations: the California
State Employees Association (CSEA), the American Association of
University Professors (AAUP), and the California College and
University Faculty Association (CCUFA). A consortium known as
the Congress of Faculty Association (CFA) was formed in 1974 by
the aforementioned organizations to combat the UPC. The
organizations within the CFA tended to favor a more traditional
approach to faculty-administration relationships.
After a number of unsuccessful attempts to get a C.B. bill
into law: some examples being SB 400 (Moscone) in 1973 and SB
275 (Dills) in 1975, a UPC supported collective bargaining bill,
AB 1091 (Berman), was passed by the Legislature in August of
1978. Unit determination hearings were then convened before the
Public Employees Relations Board (PERB) to divide CSUC academic
and professional employees into voting blocks. Following unit
determination hearings an election was held in January of 1982 to
determine the bargaining agent to represent the California State
University College employees. The CFA, which had moderated its
stance on collective bargaining, was represented as a possible
agent. Other options available to CSUC faculty and professionals
were the UPC or "no agent". The first election ended with
neither the UPC or the CFA having enough votes for a 50 percent
majority. A run-off election was held in February 1983 between
the UPC and the CFA. The UPC lost the right of bargaining agent
when the CFA picked up the minority "no agent" votes. Although
the UPC did win the right to represent the Academic Support
block, lacking the position of bargaining agent for the other
units the UPC basically became inactive at this point. In May of
1984 the CFA voted to fully affiliate with the SEIU, AFL-CIO.
Apart from playing an integral role in the creation and
passage of a collective bargaining bill for CSUC faculty and
professional employees, the UPC was active over the course of
twelve years in drafting and sponsoring a number of bills
reflecting faculty concerns. Some of these include: a 1976 bill,
SB 1615 dealing with lay-off protection by seniority, bill SB
1588 of the same year concerning employee right of access to
personnel files and a 1975 bill, AB 804, instituting more
effective grievance procedures. Other bills dealt with matters
such as early retirement for faculty, AB 339 in 1975 and early
retirement for librarians and counselors, AB 951 in 1978.
UPC union activity from 1970 to 1982 reflects both basic
academic concerns for this period and a wider union oriented
perspective. In respect to the latter, the UPC was committed to
representing a broad spectrum of CSUC personnel including part-time
lecturers, academic support employees and health care
workers. This was a departure from the traditional faculty
disassociation from both non teaching staff such as librarians
and non-tenured employees such as part-time lecturers. Support
for a more labor oriented approach within the academic community
provides for some interesting insights into societal and economic
relations in the 1970s and 1980s and also into the direction of
union growth in general. UPC concerns also show an interest in
classically academic issues. The union reviewed over one
thousand grievance cases related to promotion and retention,
matters of tenure, and academic freedom over a twelve year
period. Legal counsel was provided on a number of important
cases ranging from: a refusal to sign the loyalty oath, Rowe vs.
CSUC, to discrimination against professors active in union
activities, Wellbaum vs. CSUC.
Other UPC activities included implementation of "meet and
confer" sessions between union members and administration as a
bargaining device prior the passage of AB 1091, production of a
union paper (the Advocate), research into matters pertaining to
affirmative action, and substantial investigation into academic
employment trends. In addition to activities of the executive
board and appointed committees the union encouraged independent
action by the locals, including production of newspapers
reporting on matters of specific interest to individual campuses.
Membership in 1981, prior to the bargaining agent election, stood
at approximately 4200 and encompassed employees ranging from
department chairpersons to health records technicians.
The office files of the UPC are divided into sixteen series.
Types of materials within the collection include the minutes of
the executive board, constitution and bylaws, membership
documentation, publications of the UPC and its locals, grievance
files, committee records, collective bargaining material,
information on the CSUC budget and policies, subject files on
salaries, hiring, affirmative action, strikes and pickets
material, and information on other academic organizations.
The earliest materials contained in the collection relate to
UPC origins and are documents, publications and records from the
AFT College Council for the years 1965-1967. Some other early
material includes records and ephemera pertaining to the San
Francisco State and San Jose State strikes in 1969. The most
current material is executive minutes from 1985. The bulk of the
collection is from 1970 through 1982.
Researchers should find the UPC collection of particular
help in documenting wider trends within the union movement.
Organization of the "white collar" worker in general and public
employees in particular has been the greatest area of growth for
unions during the last thirty years. The records of the UPC
contain substantial information concerning the development of
collective bargaining in higher education, including Lou Harris
polls providing a sophisticated breakdown of faculty attitudes
towards unions and collective bargaining in the years 1979-1981.
Other materials of interest are grievance files pertaining to
academic freedom issues.
Within the UPC collection each series is arranged
alphabetically according to the organizational name or subject
title listed on the folder label. The exception to this is an
historical files series which was created by the UPC. Files
within this series have been maintained in the chronological
order in which they were arranged. The bulk of the collection
was organized alphabetically and that order has been kept.
Materials removed from the collection are UPC buttons and tie
tacks, now located in the Labor Archives button collection and
UPC photographs now housed in the LARC photograph section. A
relocation form in box #19 gives a description of photographs
removed from the collection. UPC video and audio tapes remain
with the collection and are also located in box #19. Apart from
pamphlets within the publication series duplicate materials have
not been kept except in cases where removal would occasion
confusion for the researcher. Bulk material of a public nature
such as PERB policy statements have been removed, leaving a
representative sample where necessary. Routine records such as
data on insurance policies have also not been preserved. Further
AFT College Council and UPC material from 1959 through 1984 may
be found in LARC collections for former UPC officers: Arthur
Bierman, Peter Radcliff and Tim Sampson. The personal papers of
Helene Whitson also contain UPC material. Researchers may wish
to refer to the UPC/Committee on Lecturers Collection as well,
for information on part-time and temporary faculty. A "UPC
Songbook" may also be found with that collection in the UPC
General Publications File, Publications Series, Folder 20, Box 2.
UPC material also appears in the LARC ephemera file.
For information pertaining to the final assignment of
remaining UPC funds in 1987 see Box 20, Folder 17.
- UPC material also appears in the LARC ephemera file.
- Photos removed to separate photo storage; see Blue Photograph Relocation Form