The Union and The Professors

In December 1968, shortly after the last strike of New York’s United Federation of Teachers ended, its sister union, the United Federation of College Teachers, entered a collective bargaining election at the City University of New York. The UFCT’s opponent was the Legislative Conference, an old organization of faculty members that in the past had functioned primarily as a lobby. For this election, the University had been split into two units by the supervising state agency: one made up of part-time faculty, the other of tenured teachers. The UFCT won easily in the first unit, but it was only after a run-off election that it lost to the Conference in the other unit. Since the Conference does not define itself as a union, exce...