COLLECTIVE-BARGAINING IN HIGHER-EDUCATION - PROSPECTS FOR FACULTY UNIONS

University faculty members today face threats to their economic well-b eing, professional status, and academic freedom similar to the problem s they faced in the 1970s. Universities have to cope with increasing g overnmental pressure to do more with less. Faculty governance, tenure, and academic freedom are under attack. Faculty are working fifty-four hours a week, up from an average of forty-five hours a week in 1977, and are doing so at a lower real wage than in 1972. During the 1970s, the answer for many in higher education was collective bargaining. Thi s article investigates the results of union activity in higher educati on. A brief history of faculty unions in the United States is presente d, followed by a review of the research on the effects of union activi ty. The article concludes with speculation on the prospects for the fu rther expansion of collective bargaining in academia.