Collective bargaining in higher education: Prospects for faculty unions

University faculty members today face threats to their economic well-being, professional status, and academic freedom similar to the problems they faced in the 1970s. Universities have to cope with increasing governmental 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. This article investigates the results of union activity in higher education. A brief history of faculty unions in the United States is presented, followed by a review of the research on the effects of union activity. The article concludes with speculation on the prospects for the further expansion of collective bargaining in academia.