ANNUAL REPORT ON STATE OF THE UNION
An annual report on the state of the Union is required by the Federation’s constitution and affords an opportunity to review the Federation’s response to the challenges of the recently concluded year and assess those of the year upcoming. Whether the focus is the College or the local, state, and national political scene, 2006 was a year of major transition and 2007 should prove likewise.
HFCC Administrative Changes
In the recently concluded year, the College and Local 1650 witnessed the retirement of HFCC President Andy Mazzara, the Interim Presidency of Dr. Sally Barnett, and the inauguration of Dr. Gail Mee. Given the retirement of a long-serving and very successful President, the retirement of three of the College’s four vice-presidents, and the retirement of the HFCC’s Human Resource Director and Interim President, the College community has experienced and is experiencing a period of unprecedented change.
Longstanding professional relationships have come to conclusion, and new relationships are being formed. It is to Interim President Sally Barnett’s credit that the transition to Dr. Mee’s presidency was seamless and productive. In her first few months at the College, Dr. Mee has demonstrated those qualities which the Presidential Search Committee prized and perceived in her candidacy. Dr. Mee has embraced the College’s culture and its tradition of shared governance, while beginning to steer the College in new directions. She has established very positive relationships within the College community, has energetically cultivated the political and business leadership of the Dearborn community, and has already well represented the College at the State Capitol.
The College’s new Director of Human Resources, Ms. Elizabeth Davis, has also demonstrated sensitivity to the College’s traditions and practices and a commitment to positive labor relations. We shall soon have permanent appointments to HFCC’s two instructional vice-presidencies and, with those appointments, yet further periods of transition.
Political Change in Dearborn
At the local level, Dearborn lost a long serving, highly regarded mayor, and the College an illustrious graduate and advocate. Throughout Mayor Guido’s tenure, he invariably supported HFCC’s operating and capital improvement millages. He did so even when these amounted to tax increases – a perilous stance for any elected official. The Mayor also offered wise counsel to two College presidents and to the Local 1650 president on innumerable occasions over the years. Mayor Guido was unwaveringly committed to our city, our College, and to public service. He was a mayor and man of great stature, strength, and warmth.
Dearborn and HFCC are very fortunate that Mayor Guido’s successor will likely be City Council President Jack O’Reilly. Councilman O’Reilly is immensely knowledgeable on local, regional, and State issues. He has served as Dearborn City Council President for 17 years, and as a leader in regional workforce development throughout his career. He has broad knowledge and experience at the State and federal levels of government, having served on the staffs of State Senator George Hart and U.S. Congressman John Dingell. Like Mayor Guido, Jack O’Reilly has been a staunch supporter of public education and Henry Ford Community College.
Also at the local level, 2006 brought the re-election of Trustee Jim Schoolmaster in a contest determined by 169 votes out of 22,821 cast. The Federation offered significant support to Trustee Schoolmaster, for which he is most grateful. In 2007, the seats of Trustees Joseph Guido and Mary Lane will be on the ballot. Mr. Guido has indicated that he does not intend to run for re-election. Ms. Lane most likely will run. As in 2006, the Federation will need to support Trustee candidates who are committed to the welfare of HFCC and the Dearborn Schools and not to the agenda of a narrow, self serving constituency.
State Politics and HFCC Finances
At the State level, Governor Granholm will return to office in 2007, with a Democratic majority holding the State House for the first time in many years. Local 1650 contributed significantly to Governor Granholm’s campaign and to the campaigns of six candidates elected to the State Legislature. With Democrats holding the State House, there should be fewer attacks directed at the State teachers’ retirement plan and much greater effort to increase State revenues.
However, the Republican majority’s elimination of the State Business Tax last year will add in 2008 over $2.2 billion to the State’s current $800 million projected deficit. While the Governor has proposed replacing all revenue lost by the repeal of the Single Business Tax, the State Republican leadership insists on tax reduction, arguing that this will stimulate economic growth. There are very serious questions, though, as to whether Michigan can “grow” itself out of its structural deficit. Even if it could, what happens to essential State services, including higher education funding, during the interim, until this period of hoped for economic growth materializes?
Federal Government and Deficit Impact Higher Education
At the national level, control of the U.S. House and U. S. Senate has changed parties. When Republicans controlled both federal chambers, there were repeated calls to terminate Perkins funding, curtail Pell Grant Funding, and enforce highly questionable “accountability” standards in the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, among them tying federal higher education funds to graduation rates. Elements of David Horowitz’s so-called “Academic Bill of Rights” were also espoused by the Republican leaders, including the federal review of faculty hiring practices and college curricula to assure ideological balance. With the Democratic party in control of both the U.S. House and Senate, these threats are greatly diminished.
As is the case though with our deficit burdened State, the federal budget deficit generated by President Bush and his Republican majority over the last six years severely limits what can be done at the federal level to improve higher education programs. The $5.6 trillion federal debt at the end of the Clinton administration is now $8.6 trillion. The budget surplus of $236 billion as President Clinton left office is now a federal deficit of $248 billion. A deficit of $339 billion is projected for 2007, and most of this deficit is due to tax reductions favoring the most wealthy of Americans and not the fiscal burdens of Homeland Security or the War in Iraq. Moreover, President Bush’s $1.7 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthiest of Americans, if made permanent, will cost, with interest, $2.1 trillion by 2015 and $7.2 trillion by 2025. The longstanding Republican strategy of “starving” government and thereby diminishing social and human services will severely constrain the new Democratic majorities in both Michigan’s State House and the federal legislature. Lest anyone forget, among the social and human resources being “starved” are public and higher education.
Local 1650 Political Action
Clearly in the political arena, we are in the midst of transition, and clearly Local 1650's political engagement at the local and State levels in 2006 contributed to this transition. This Local engages in politics because, as public employees, we are at the mercy of elected officials. Their decisions – or lack thereof – influence student access and thus enrollment. Their decisions influence college funding and thus curriculum development, enhanced instructional technology, and program offerings. They influence the existence of support services and thus the likelihood of student success. Their decisions – or the lack thereof – also influence the compensation, health benefits, and pensions of HFCC employees and thus our careers and families. We engage in politics because our professional lives and livelihoods are determined by the priorities, ideology, and decisions of those who hold office. HFCC faculty have long recognized this, and it is to their credit – and in particular to the credit of the faculty who have recently come to the College – that once again in 2006 over 90% of HFCC teachers contributed to the Local’s Political Action Fund.
Ford Motor and HFCC’s Future
What then does 2007 portend for HFCC and its faculty? Much will depend on the funding available from Lansing and Washington – and this is cause for considerable concern. Much too is dependent on the strength of Dearborn’s tax base, and that is heavily tied to the fate of the Ford Motor Company. All of us at the College would do well to consider what Ford Motor has meant and means to HFCC when purchasing an automobile. To begin with, this campus sits on land donated by Ford Motor Company, as does the College’s M-TEC Center. The Administrative Services Building is a contribution from Ford and the UAW. Ford has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment to the College’s career programs over the years. Ford and its employees have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition revenue to HFCC over the years. The Ford family has contributed tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship funds. Ford’s share of Dearborn’s tax base is considerable, and 22% of HFCC revenues derive from that tax base.
Given that the American auto industry, at the insistence of the United Auto Workers, has brought – directly and indirectly – tens of millions Americans into the middle class, a decision to purchase a union made American automobile – and in our case a union made Ford automobile – should be an easy one, since it is clearly in our self interest to do so.
Local 1650 Contract Negotiations
The State’s economy, Dearborn’s economy, the health of the automobile industry in general, and Ford Motor Company in particular, will have great impact on this College and Local as we negotiate a successor contract in 2007. The College and its employees are not immune from the forces buffeting the private sector. If good wages, comprehensive health care coverage, and secure pensions disappear in the private sector, they will surely disappear in the public sector. Elected officials will not long afford public sector employees what is no longer common in the private sector. Local 1650's negotiating team will work hard to bring back on equitable contract, but that team, this Union, and this College do not operate in political and fiscal vacuums. I hope we can achieve a good contract in 2007, and if we do so, it will be because this Union engages in political action, in Dearborn, in Lansing, and through the AFT in Washington. Maintaining professional compensation and benefits long term is an even dicier proposition. That depends upon the American middle class recognizing that it must support those unions and industries which brought millions of Americans into the middle class.
HFCC Adjuncts Attempt to Organize
One final point regarding transition in 2007. This year will probably witness an effort by AFT Michigan to organize HFCC’s adjunct faculty. This is being done at the request of HFCC’s adjunct faculty. Given 600 adjunct faculty and their potential voting strength, it is very unlikely that they will come into our 205 member Union. Nevertheless, we should and will support their efforts to organize a union. We should do so because many of them must cobble together a meager income from several college and they lack the due process protections we take for granted. They need to be empowered. We should and will support their efforts because we remember from where we came. Prior to the teacher union movement, public education was subsidized on the backs of all teachers. Over time, the teacher union movement has changed that and brought professional compensation and professional standing to many teachers. Much of higher education, though, remains subsidized on the backs of adjunct faculty – and that is simply wrong. Excessive use of underpaid adjunct faculty is not good for the future of our profession as a profession. It does not optimize student learning. And it is, quite simply, economic exploitation.
Local 1650 members have benefitted immensely from those who pioneered the American labor movement and from those HFCC faculty who risked their careers in founding and building this Union. We enjoy professional compensation and professional empowerment. We should assist our adjunct colleagues in achieving the same – if or no other reasons than we remember from where we came and we know there are powerful political forces that would undermine our own standing.
Yes, we are in the midst of significant change at our College and in Dearborn, Lansing and Washington. The tenor of the change bodes well. The political context is improving, but Ford Motor and Michigan’s fiscal struggles are the other context in which we must negotiate a new contract. In 2007 this Union’s bargaining resolve, expertise, and creativity will be put to the test. What we, as public employees, face in 2007 is not new. In the public sector, every year is a year of critical challenges. We will be challenged no doubt in 2007, but Local 1650's history, both distant and recent, proves we will be up to the task.
John McDonald
January 23, 2006
Henry Ford Community College
Federation of Teachers
5101 Evergreen Road
Dearborn, MI 48128-1495
jmcdon@hfcc.edu