Back in 1975, the Nevada Board of Regents first adopted policies that permitted collective bargaining in the State's higher education system. At the time, the policies reflected state laws for public employees. The last round of major revisions occurred in the early 1990s when changes were adopted to align the BOR policies with the same state laws that had evolved over time. Lawmakers have updated the state laws many times in the last three decades, but no such updates have occurred in the higher education policies, leaving them dramatically outdated.

About three years ago, the NFA submitted proposed changes designed to create parity between NSHE Professionals and other state employee groups, but multiple circumstances over time sidelined the process. This year, however.

Upon the advice of the Board of Regents chair, the Council of Faculty Senate Chairs, consisting of the senate chairs from all NSHE institutions, is currently reviewing our proposal. We hope the proposal will be taken up by the Board in the coming months, but we also know the likelihood of it passing increases dramatically if we have support from the Senate Chairs.

Although collective bargaining does not exist on every NSHE campus, the NFA proposal not only makes the NSHE policy consistent with state laws governing other employee groups, it clarifies how collective bargaining units are formed and strengthens bargaining policies. These changes provide better support to faculty in existing collective bargaining chapters and set a clear path forward for faculty who may, in the future, consider creating a collective bargaining unit on their campus.

The proposal would:

• Create consistency between NSHE collective-bargaining procedures and state laws for other state public employees.
• Remove anachronistic language specifying only one system bargaining unit and one community college bargaining unit, which conflicts with the actual practice that allowed approval of three community college bargaining units.
• Allow for separate bargaining units on each campus for various categories of professional employees (i.e., academic faculty, non-managerial administrative faculty, lecturers, postdocs, medical residents, and graduate assistants).
• Allow for a new bargaining unit to be formed by written authorizations from a majority of the professional employees in the proposed bargaining unit.
• Resolve negotiation impasses promptly and aligns with state laws by adopting binding arbitration.
• Require future collective bargaining agreements to include methods for resolving employee grievances, culminating in arbitration as a final appeal.

The proposal would not:

• Affect any existing policies, rules, or procedures on campuses where faculty have not elected to form collective bargaining units, including both research universities.
• Change existing collective bargaining agreements at CSN, TMCC, and WNC (until they are renegotiated).
• Change Nevada’s status as a right-to-work state.
  
• Require any employee to join a union or pay union dues.
• Allow strikes or related work actions by NSHE employees.
• Change anti-strike provisions for NSHE employees.
• Create any new bargaining units, which are established only by the consent of a majority of the members of a proposed bargaining unit.
• Change the employee association’s duty of fair representation for members of bargaining units who are not dues-paying members of the association.
• Allow appeals of collective bargaining issues to the state Government Employee-Management Relations Board, as a statutory change would be required.

Collective bargaining does not supplant the role of the Faculty Senate. Instead, it supports and complements shared governance by addressing issues that are outside the mission of the Faculty Senate, amplifying the voice of the faculty.

Our proposal seeks parity with other public employee groups in Nevada, including our classified colleagues at NSHE. In the 34 years since the last revision to this policy, significant changes have occurred in state laws and labor standards. We seek to level that playing field for our members and professional colleagues.